Clark says NZQA 'on the mat' in exam debacle

The Prime Minister has weighed into the scholarship debacle, saying the Qualifications Authority is "on the mat" - an indication the Government will press for resignations.

Helen Clark also disclosed yesterday for the first time that NZQA cannot scrutinise what went wrong because it did not make copies of exam papers returned to students.

She said repeatedly yesterday that the collapse of the scholarship exams - which resulted in the creation of replacement awards - was unacceptable and appalling.

NZQA would have to "face up" to the problem, she said, and she did not reject a suggestion that there would be resignations from the board.

"I have yet to get to the bottom of why, when NZQA knew that there was great variation in the results across subjects, this was not brought to the attention of the responsible ministers."

NZQA appears to have gone to ground. It refused to comment yesterday on the Prime Minister's comments and none of the board members contacted by the Herald would comment about resignations.

National Party education spokesman Bill English slammed Helen Clark's comments as an attempt to protect her ministers and to lay the blame solely on NZQA.

Helen Clark said that when she first heard about the problem she wanted the scholarship papers to be remarked and moderated across subjects.

But this was impossible because the papers had already been sent back to students and NZQA did not have copies.

Yesterday, she was highly critical of the decision to send the papers back.

"There was no opportunity to remark when the full glare of scrutiny came on."

The returning of exam papers meant the Government was forced to come up with another solution, which was the creation of 373 special "distinction certificates" to try to balance the high student failure rate.

Of particular concern to the Government was the high failure rate in science subjects.

Helen Clark said NZQA had known for some time about the variance in marks before it told the responsible ministers - Education Minister Trevor Mallard and Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope.

She did not know when the board had become aware of the problem.

The timing of when the board found out will be vital to whether there are resignations from its 10 members.

If they knew and did not promptly pass the information to the ministers, they will be held accountable.

The Government has a "no surprises" policy under which boards are expected to tell responsible ministers about specific issues, especially ones likely to be controversial.

Under the policy, ministers expect boards to be "sensitive" to the demands for accountability placed on them by Parliament and taxpayers.

But if the NZQA management did not pass on news of the scholarship problem to the board, the management may be held responsible, particularly chief executive Karen Van Rooyen.

Mr English, who first drew public attention to the scholarship problem two weeks ago, said Helen Clark was trying to shift responsibility from the politicians to the bureaucrats.

The PM's questions

* Why did NZQA not immediately inform the Government about the scholarship problems?

* When was the NZQA board informed of the problem?

* Why were exam papers returned to students, making remarking impossible?

The Qualifications Authority board

* Prof Graeme Fraser
(Chairman) Emeritus professor, Massey University. Colonel commander in the Army. Professor Fraser became foundation professor of psychology at Massey in 1970, later becoming assistant vice-chancellor (academic) and acting vice-chancellor.

* Margaret Bendall
Former Epsom Girls Grammar School principal. Last year made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education. She was a leading member of the group that designed and wrote the English syllabus for the New Zealand curriculum. She has been a member of the board since 2001 and has contributed to the work of the NZQA. Catherine Gibson Management consultant.

* Angela Foulkes
Former secretary of the Council of Trade Unions and now an independent consultant.

* Peter Chrisp
Chief executive of Norske-Skog Tasman.

* Tracey Bridges
A partner in Senate Communications. Has previously worked for Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson.

* Graeme McNally
Former dean of the faculty of commerce, University of Canterbury, and partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

* Tina Olsen-Ratana
Manager of Kokiri Marae, Seaview.

* Dr Ailsa Smith
Senior lecturer at the Centre for Maori and Indigenous Planning and Development at Lincoln University.

* Warwick Bell
Recently retired deputy chairman of the NZ Industry Training Federation, director and architect at Bell Kelly Beaumont Team Architecture, Wellington.

What they said

Answers from some of the 10 NZQA board members the Herald reached to ask:

"Did you know the scholarship results were so widely varying before they were sent out to students?"

* Tina Olsen-Ratana: "I couldn't comment on that."

* Dr Ailsa Smith: "I've only just joined the board, in January, so I'm not in a position to answer the question."

* Warwick Bell: "I would need to refer you to the board chairman."

* Tracey Bridges: "The way boards work is that chairman Graeme Fraser would need to comment on that."

* Graeme McNally: "I'm not authorised to speak to media."

* Margaret Bendall: "The authority needs to be consulted through its chair."

* Graeme Fraser (chairman): The Herald was unable to question Professor Fraser but was told by a woman at his home: "He's cooking our dinner right now. I'll pass it on but it probably won't be until tomorrow. I think he's off-duty for today."