Government announces NCEA exam inquiry

UPDATE - The Government has announced an inquiry into problems with the NCEA scholarship examination.


Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope told Parliament today that he had asked the State Services Commission to review the performance of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

He would also assemble a group of educational experts, including teachers, principals and university representatives, to review and find solutions for problems with the new system.

The group would have two weeks to prepare a report, including recommended options for cabinet to consider.
"It is not a lot of time but we have teachers and students in classrooms who need to know the shape of the exam system that will be used at the end of this year."

The Government has come under fire from Opposition MPs after admitting variability in scholarship results was unacceptable.

An uproar has arisen because very few science students gained scholarships compared with arts students, and there was a wide difference in the marks for subjects.

Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper said the botch over scholarships had the potential to cause a backlash for the Government, the last thing it wants in an election year.

With just five per cent now between Labour and National, the Government is not prepared to let anything stand in its way of maintaining the edge, and the NCEA debacle has the potential to do just that. 

Prime Minister Helen Clark said today someone should be held accountable for the problems with scholarship. 

Helen Clark said she would be seeking explanations from the NZQA board, its CEO and her own ministers, David Benson-Pope and Trevor Mallard.

"We appoint a board, that board is responsible for the chief executive, the chief executive is responsible for what happens down the line.

"The chief executive is responsible for staff."

Helen Clark said ministers should be able to have confidence that their decisions were implemented by authorities properly.

"The whole point of getting to the bottom of it is to find out who knew what and when.

"Then it will be a matter of determining whose place it is to deal with that."

She said the issues with the new scholarship exam were separate from the broader NCEA system, which the education sector had overwhelmingly backed.

"If there are issues which arise about particular courses and exams they should be looked at openly.

"There's no point in being defensive when people have a legitimate interest in asking for assurances about standard, quality and integrity of exam systems."

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) said today the variability in students' results was nothing new.

NZQA secondary schools group manager Kate Colbert said she could assure the public there was nothing wrong with levels one, two and three in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

National Party education spokesman Bill English said at the weekend that problems with the New Zealand Scholarship appeared to be spilling over into levels two and three of the NCEA.

An Education Ministry and NZQA report has shown some subjects had far fewer scholarship level passes than expected.

The Government has initiated a separate scholarship award to help some of those who missed out.

NZQA's chief executive, Karen Van Rooyen, will face a grilling tomorrow when the scholarship problems will be raised at a parliamentary select committee.

But Ms Colbert told National Radio today she could assure the public that there was "nothing unexpected or wrong" about levels of variability in levels one, two and three of the NCEA.

"This is a new system and people are coming to terms with it.

"In the old system, of School Certificate and University Entrance, and bursaries there was variability from year to year in the different questions.

"In fact, if you look at School Certificate over a period of five years there was over a 40 per cent variability in achievement in one particularly subject.

"This is not new. Within bursary we scaled the separate exams to mask that variability. Assessment will never give you an absolute yes/no answer unless you assess things like in a driver's test with multi-choice questions. That is not what we're talking about here."

Mr Benson-Pope today said he would be inviting nominations of one representative from each of the following organisations to sit on the review group: the Secondary Schools Principals' Association, the New Zealand Vice Chancellors' Committee; the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA); the PPTA Principals' Council; the School Trustees' Association; and Independent Schools New Zealand. It would also include two additional principals nominated by the Minister and a person from the Wharekura (Maori secondary schools) area. They will be assisted by senior representatives from the Ministry of Education and NZQA.

- Herald, NZPA, Newstalk ZB