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NCEA qualifications
NCEA is our national qualification, it is here to stay and we should be proud of every student who achieves it. The central aim of NCEA is to allow every young person to leave school with a clear record of what they have achieved and an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.
As a government, we want everyone to have confidence that our students' results are meaningful and useful. The latest set of design changes to NCEA aim to build further confidence in the system, boost its credibility, and make it more challenging and rewarding for students.
NCEA is an essential part of New Zealand's modern education system. This country cannot afford a school assessment system which leaves a significant proportion of students with nothing at the end of their time at school, as we had prior to NCEA. We now offer all young people from top students, to those in the middle of the pack and those who find it a little harder, the chance to achieve a qualification.
Student of today need to be equipped with the tools to deal not only with today's challenges, but also for a future we don't even know about, full of demands we can't imagine.
NCEA is a system that is geared to getting the best results for every single student. It is a system of standards-based assessment with its combination of both practical work and written exams, much like university study.
NCEA rolled out from 2002. At first, there were some teething problems, but the Labour-led government has since led a programme of continued improvement. The latest changes to NCEA aim to finish that work, by further refining the system. The improvements are about making the system work even better, not designing a whole new system.
We are seeing increases in the numbers of students gaining qualifications at all three levels of NCEA and in particular, more Maori and Pasifika students gaining level two NCEA. Independent research shows that it is a very good predictor of achievements at university. But there are always improvements which can be made.
An important requirement in politics, and especially when you're in government, is to remain in touch with voters and the community. And that's what we're doing by simply listening to what our schools want, and then tweaking the system to suit their needs. The changes give greater incentives for students to perform well and greater recognition of excellence, both of which will increase student motivation and public confidence in the qualification.
The changes are the result of 18 months of reviews, analysis, consultation, discussion, and careful consideration. Most importantly, they are changes which the sector's most important stakeholders - students and their parents - have been asking for.
In particular, students and parents wanted there to be more incentives for them to strive for excellence. And parents and employers wanted greater clarity of students' abilities - not just what they have achieved but also areas of weakness which might require addressing. These concerns have been listened to and answered in these changes.
From this year, students who excel will be awarded certificates with 'merit' and 'excellence' grades.This will encourage more students to do their best, as oppose to doing just enough to get by.
Students who do well in a particular subject area will be eligible for a merit or excellence endorsement for that subject. This will help encourage more coherence and less fragmentation in the courses chosen by students.
Parents, teachers, and employers will now be able to understand more fully, students' overall abilities. Currently, 'not achieved' is reported only for externally assessed standards. Starting next year, all internally assessed standards which are 'not achieved' will also be reported on the students' results notices.
Concerns have been repeatedly raised about the consistency and reliability of internally assessed work across schools. Students, parents, and employers want to know that unit standards are of similar quality across schools. Moderation is vital to ensuring that assessment and marking are valid and applied with similar rigour throughout the school system.
The number of internally assessed standards which are moderated in schools is to be increased significantly by employing fulltime moderators and aiming to moderate ten percent of internally assessed standards.
Work is also underway to improve the way we compare internal and external assessment results to identify schools with larger than average variations between external and internal assessment results, and improve consistency.
These improvements to NCEA are a clear sign that this government listens and responds to people's concerns. The response to the changes has confirmed that this is the right way to go, with an overwhelmingly positive reaction from students, teachers, principals, unions and employers.
