Editorial: NCEA reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity

Minister of Education Erica Stanford and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a shakeup of secondary school qualifications on Monday. Photo / Jason Dorday

THE FACTS

• The Government plans to abolish NCEA and replace it with two new qualifications at Year 12 and 13.
• The move replaces the current standards-based assessment system with a structured approach that requires students to take five subjects and pass at least four to receive the Year 12 and 13 certificates.
• Issues with NCEA have been laid out in a series of damning reports on the state of qualifications.

The Government’s shake-up of secondary school assessment presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a world-class qualification.

On Monday, the Government announced a proposal to abolish NCEA and replace it with two new qualifications at Year 12 and 13, with a “Foundational Skills Award” at Year 11 with a focus on literacy and numeracy.

The writing has been on the wall for NCEA for some time, as it has come under increasing criticism.

Epsom Girls Grammar announced in May that it would start its Cambridge International exams pilot next year after being flooded with “overwhelming community demand”.

Mount Albert Grammar School principal Patrick Drumm has said his school was also under growing pressure to offer Cambridge exams from parents concerned the NCEA lacked “rigour”.

Meanwhile, the Education Review Office (ERO) has called the NCEA “difficult to understand” and said it doesn’t prepare students for future achievement.

It would be tough to argue that change isn’t required.

When NCEA was introduced between 2002 and 2004, it was designed with the idea that each student was unique, and it offered flexibility in what students could study and demonstrate achievement and competence in.

That was a shift away from the blunter, one-size-fits-all system that was School Certificate and Bursary.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said this week, “This has come at the cost of developing the critical skills and knowledge they need for clear pathways into future study, training or employment”.

NCEA has often been criticised for being too hard to follow and inconsistent across students and schools.

It is a different world from the one in which NCEA was designed, and whatever your view, we now have the opportunity to design a better way of assessing and preparing students for life after school.

And so it is good to see acceptance of the need for change, even from those more sympathetic towards NCEA.

Chris Abercrombie, president of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA), while saying NCEA should “evolve” rather than be destroyed, said “Reform is necessary – but it must be thoughtful, inclusive and evidence-based".

Opposition leader and former Education Minister Chris Hipkins warned against taking a backward step but admitted there was “clear evidence that NCEA is not operating as intended and there is change required”.

He didn’t want the debate to become “ideological” or “unnecessarily political”.

And that will be the key to developing whatever replaces NCEA.

The world is rapidly changing, and all concerned parties need to come to the table to ensure New Zealand’s secondary education system is enduring and fit for purpose in 2030 and beyond.