14 June 2002

Alliance Education Spokesperson Liz Gordon is aghast to hear that Cambridge International Examinations is set to open an office in New Zealand. She questions how these examinations can ever be relevant to New Zealand schools. Dr Gordon is also concerned that the introduction of these exams will only put unnecessary pressure on parents, teachers and especially students.

"There is no advantage to New Zealand in importing these exams and significant disadvantage. Parents will be under huge pressure to 'pay-up' in order that their children can sit these additional exams. Teachers will be forced to offer a dual curriculum, with performance implications for both the NCEA and A-levels" said Dr Gordon.

"I simply cannot see how these examinations will be relevant to New Zealand schools. How on earth is a British based curriculum ever going to cover the Treaty of Waitangi or any other vital aspects of New Zealand history and culture?

'In my view, we need to reject such backward looking colonialism and ensure that both the curriculum and the methods of assessment used in our schools are relevant to New Zealand and the educational needs of the 21st century," said Dr Gordon.

Liz Gordon also responded to critics of the NCEA who have claimed that the internal assessment component of the new qualification system will lead to a 'dumbing down' of academic standards.

"Standards in education will be best be upheld if debates over these issues are kept to the facts and are not captured by cries of 'dumbing down' and other emotive slogans.

"In regards to the NCEA, there may well be issues concerning teacher workload and student over-assessment but what we need to do is resolve these issues, not introduce a neo-colonialist examination system that is irrelevant and unnecessary," said Dr Gordon.

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