Expansion of exam inquiry no big deal, says minister

Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope was yesterday working hard to downplay the widening of the scholarship exam inquiry that now covers all NCEA results.

Mr Benson-Pope defended his decision not to publicly announce the expansion of the inquiry by saying it was not really an expansion.

He said the capacity for the State Services Commission, which is conducting the scholarship review, to also look into exam mark variance in NCEA was included in the original terms of reference. However, the terms of reference say the inquiry will be two-pronged and will look at both the controversial 2004 scholarship exams and the performance of the Qualifications Authority. The NCEA is not mentioned.

And Mr Benson-Pope has not previously mentioned that the inquiry would cover NCEA. But he now says the terms were always wide enough to cover NCEA and that was what was intended.

He has come under attack from National's education spokesman, Bill English, for trying to be secretive about the widening of the inquiry and of trying to sneak it out to attract less attention. Last week Mr Benson-Pope wrote to the State Services Commission asking them to widen the inquiry, but no press release or announcement was made at the time, as is general practice for important announcements such as an expansion of an inquiry. Instead Mr Benson-Pope mentioned the extension of the State Services Commission's inquiry during a question time in Parliament this week.

Over the past few weeks there has been publicity about the variance in marks between years and subjects in NCEA, with the qualification being labelled a "lotto". Last week NZQA said it would investigate NCEA exam results at levels 1 and 2 where "significant variability" has been found.

Mr Benson-Pope said when he heard about NZQA's move he wrote to the State Services Commission to make sure the inquiry would also cover that. He said he has received confirmation that the terms of reference are wide enough. "I didn't put out a particular release about the fact that I had written a letter because I didn't think it was a big deal because it was already covered by the State Services Commission."

But Auckland Secondary Principals Association Brent Lewis president said it was made clear when the scholarship inquiry was first announced that the focus would be solely on scholarship. "Suddenly we find that the terms of reference have been altered, changed or reinterpreted to include the NCEA."