English has warning for new NZQA boss

The Director-General of Health will jump ship to take up the reins of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority in a move intended to cement the organisation's rebuilding.

Dr Karen Poutasi will take up her chief executive role in May - but yesterday found herself already under fire as a Government "stooge".

Her appointment is designed to help restore faith in the authority, which is still recovering from the hammering it took last January when wildly varied exam results exposed gaping holes in management practices.

National Party education spokesman Bill English said Dr Poutasi would have to prove her independence or "she will be sucked into the NCEA quagmire like the last half dozen chief executives of NZQA".

In the aftermath of last year's exam results, the then chief executive, Karen Van Rooyen, and chairman, Graeme Fraser, resigned.

The authority has since been working hard to build confidence and show more transparency in its processes.

Dr Poutasi has been head of the country's health ministry since 1995. She was responsible for implementing Government policy to establish district health boards and is currently overseeing a major change to the delivery of primary health care.

Last year, she oversaw the roll-out of a children's vaccine against a deadly strain of meningococcal disease.

Yesterday, she said she was looking forward to the NZQA position and was committed to quality assurance.

"Improving access to education must go hand in hand with quality assurance," she said.

But Mr English said Dr Poutasi would fail unless she was an advocate for students and not "a stooge for the minister".

"Ms Poutasi will have to choose whether to please the minister and the education Establishment, or fix the NCEA."

He said the appointment of a new CEO should have meant a fresh start for the troubled national qualification but it was a step backwards.

Dr Poutasi came from the health sector where "pleasing the minister is top priority".

However, acting NZQA chairwoman Catherine Gibson said Dr Poutasi had "significant management experience ".

"She brings a wealth of experience in cultural and organisational change," Ms Gibson said.

"She also has considerable understanding of the education and training needs of the health and health sciences sector, and is well aware of the significance of a robust qualifications framework."

Dr Poutasi is a medical graduate of Otago University and holds Otago University and Harvard University management qualifications.

She has held a Harkness Fellowship and is on the NZ appointments committee for Harkness Fellowships in health care policy.

Results from the 2005 NCEA exams are due in students' letterboxes within a fortnight, under the stewardship of acting chief executive Karen Sewell, who will stay on until May.

Dr Poutasi's appointment comes a fortnight after Sue Suckling was named the new NZQA chairwoman.

Ms Suckling, who is also chairwoman of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, AgriQuality, Barkers Fruit Processors, the Oxford Clinic in Christchurch and the Carson Group, will take up her role in March.