NCEA Survey Shows Serious Concerns About Rollout Of Level 1 Changes

A ‘pulse check’ on how the new Level 1 NCEA is being rolled out in schools is shocking, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president.

The survey, carried out last month, was completed by teachers, across more than 200 schools.

Eighty-three percent of respondents said resources were arriving too late, and 80% were concerned about the availability and usefulness of resources.

Eighty-one percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the exemplars – models of assessments - and 75% were dissatisfied with the support from the Ministry of Education and New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

Respondents commented they were frustrated with the lack of clear guidance on assessments, resulting in work having to be repeated and confusion about what meets the standards. Many teachers commented they were feeling overwhelmed, especially in smaller schools where resources are stretched thin.

Almost 80% of respondents said they were happy with the support for the changes that they received from their own subject department in their school, and 70% were happy with the support they received from their own subject assocation.

Another new aspect of the NCEA is the literacy and numeracy co-requisites; students need to achieve these in order to attain the NCEA. The survey found that almost 80 percent of respondents were concerned about what would happen to students who could not attain these credits.

Chris Abercrombie said the survey results confirm concerns that had been voiced consistently by subject associations about the implementation of the new Level 1. “Students deserve a great introduction to NCEA and secondary teachers had very high hopes for the changes. We fully support NCEA being more accessible, providing equal status for mātauranga Māori, having fewer and larger standards, and a simpler structure.

“However the rollout has been a shambles. The lack of adequate support and resourcing at the national level is taking a huge toll. It’s making the NCEA system confusing for students and making the workloads of many teachers completely unsustainable. Subject associations are trying desperately to fill the gaps, however they are volunteers, and the resources provided by the Ministry have been inadequate.

“If the Ministry and NZQA only do one thing adequately for secondary schools, surely it should be to ensure that a comprehensive change programme for our national qualification is fully developed, resourced and implemented.”

A paper to PPTA Te Wehengarua annual conference this week calls for an urgent development of an improvement plan for the implementation of NCEA Level 1 and a thorough evaluation of the implementation to ensure that Levels 2 and 3 are rolled out effectively.
 

© Scoop Media