By REBECCA WALSH EDUCATION REPORTER
Secondary school students will get a mark out of 100 as well as "achievement standards" for their year's work as the Government bows to pressure from parents, universities and schools.
The new marking system, revealed by the Herald last week, will replace School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and Bursary from next year.
Education Minister Trevor Mallard confirmed at the secondary principals' conference in Wellington yesterday that students would get a grade average for each subject.
The decision has been criticised by some principals, the secondary teachers' union and the Opposition.
They say it will create confusion and will not properly reflect a student's performance.
But those in the tertiary sector have welcomed the introduction of a grade average, saying it will help identify top students.
Under the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, students will be marked on a number of achievement standards.
For example, a student could gain anything from no credit to excellence for the algebra part of a maths course.
The grade average will be worked out by a series of complex calculations.
Mr Mallard said feedback from parents was that they would like a number to indicate their child's overall performance in each subject.
"In the early stages, it is important to help people feel comfortable with the new system. It shouldn't look too different and that is why I think the number should be expressed out of 100."
The decision would be reviewed in five years.
But National's education spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, said the grade average was a desperate attempt to address mounting concerns about the new qualification.
The final mark would not properly reflect a student's performance. People were likely to assume the grade average was a percentage, he said.
Jen McCutcheon, president of the PPTA, said the grade average appeared to be driven by "political reasons" and was "educationally unsound."
Some principals were concerned that people would focus on the grade average rather than on how students had done in all parts of a subject, thereby defeating one of the major aims of the new system.
Avondale College principal Brent Lewis, who has major concerns about the system, said it was "nonsense" - people had wanted to get away from percentages.
"The bottom line is they make more and more compromises to appease different interest groups. The final outcomes become more and more distorted."
Tom Robson, president of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Principals Association, said the 300 principals at the conference accepted the minister's decision and wanted to "stop arguing about this and make it happen."
Unitec chief executive John Webster said the institution had been concerned that top students would not easily be identified for limited- entry courses.
Percentages survive in mark system
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