Kiwi students opting for more ‘rigorous’ Cambridge curriculum because of NCEA uncertainty, data shows

A growing number of Kiwi students are opting out of NCEA exams in favour of an international curriculum that educators describe as more rigorous and less marred by uncertainty — with one school abandoning a year of NCEA science after a trial of the controversial new curriculum.

Cambridge International has seen a 6 per cent growth in entries to its examinations by New Zealand students from 2022 to 2023.

Several principals the Herald spoke to have attributed the increase in Cambridge exam candidates to the uncertainty parents feel around the local NCEA — which has been under review since 2018.

Steven Hargreaves, the principal of Auckland’s Macleans College, said the school has seen an uptick back towards Cambridge exams over the past year — after increasing trust and uptake in NCEA enrolment from students for over a decade.

“Look in a perfect world, everybody would be doing the national qualification and every school and every student would have full confidence in the national qualification. That’s not the case,” Hargreaves said.

“It’s probably [a broader issue] that the public has a sense there are changes coming with NCEA to what’s going to be taught and how it’s assessed and that uncertainty is possibly causing them to change their mind about what pathway their child will study.

“I think your average parent or student probably doesn’t have a great handle on what exactly might happen with the science curriculum ... Cambridge carries this very recognisable brand which I think helps our students who are aiming for those top universities overseas.”

Cambridge International Education group is part of the University of Cambridge — and offers a flexible framework for education from ages 3 to 19 available across the globe.

Consultation on NCEA’s draft new science curriculum, which caused uproar when leaked in July for its lack of any mention of physics, chemistry or biology, was put on hold for a second time in November, with the Ministry of Education waiting to “engage” with the new Government before it is sent out.

Jo Walshe is the principal of St Kevin’s College in Oamaru. Photo / Kayla Hodge

St Kevin’s College in Oamaru was involved in the pilot programme of the draft NCEA science curriculum for Year 11. But next year the school will offer only the Cambridge curriculum science and not an NCEA option. Most other subjects will be available in Cambridge and NCEA.

Principal Jo Walshe said she took the advice of St Kevin’s head of science after they had looked at the contrasting NCEA and Cambridge curriculums and “it just wasn’t the right fit for our students” — especially those with aspirations to study overseas.

“We had a fairly good idea of what was going on in that space and when we looked at what our students needed, we just felt that the Cambridge programme fit a bit better than the new standards,” Walshe said.

“I mean, science resourcing is pretty hard to come by in New Zealand. You’ve only got a limited number of teachers and a limited number of labs. [Cambridge has] got everything in place, it’s ready to go.”

Walshe said she “absolutely agreed” with Hargreaves there was much uncertainty around what the NCEA curriculum A levels curriculum would look like amid the review.

“Unfortunately for the people involved in this, the fact that that’s happened in the middle of Covid has been incredibly difficult for everybody involved.”

But Walsh said St Kevin’s was still offering a specific NCEA applied science class on marine biology for their international students once a week.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford during a visit to Manurewa Intermediate School. Photo / Jason Dorday

New Education Minister Erica Stanford said the Government would “rewrite” the NCEA curriculum “to include the specific knowledge students should learn in the basics”. But she also endorsed students having the option of sitting international examinations.

“The Government wants every student to have the opportunity to receive a world-class education, and feedback from principals about some of Labour’s NCEA changes when I was the Opposition spokesperson was concerning,” Stanford said.

“It was clear the original draft science curriculum, which lacked a focus on the fundamentals of physics, biology, and chemistry, would only worsen New Zealand’s declining achievement.”

Macleans College’s Hargreaves is also on the Professional Advisory Group for the Ministry of Education on the NCEA review, and laments some of the procedural steps involved.

“Ideally, a curriculum review would be done before you looked at how it was going to be assessed and then make the assessment changes,” he said.

“But we’ve been trying to do it simultaneously and obviously, that makes it difficult to plan how you’re going to assess something while you’re still working out the content of the course.”

Macleans College principal Steven Hargreaves. Photo / Dean Purcell

The Cambridge international senior country manager for New Zealand, Kathy Lloyd-Parker, said several schools have signed up for the Cambridge curriculum in the past few weeks and are not even included in the 6 per cent increase in student uptake from 2022 to 2023.

Among these recent adopters of Cambridge are St Kevin’s College Oamaru, Tauranga Boys’ College and Whanganui Collegiate School.

Lloyd-Parker said they are “projecting next year’s growth will be even bigger than this year’s increase”.

NZ Initiative senior fellow Dr Michael Johnston was associate dean at Victoria University of Wellington’s faculty of education and a senior statistician at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

Johnston describes the 6 per cent increase in Cambridge examination entries in the past year in New Zealand as “significant” and he suspects such an increase has been going on for several years.

“I think it’s true that parents have become disquieted,” Johnston said.

“Disquiet about the [NCEA] standards review does explain quite a lot of the change [to Cambridge] and that’s both because of the very long time that [the review’s] taken and the kind of uncertainty about where it’s headed.”

Johnston said: “Sscience has been quite watered down in the new standards” and it’s a “terrible thing”.

“Under the old standards, which is what most students would be assessed within Year 11, it covered quite a lot of core concepts in biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science. Now, they’re kind of contextual. I would argue that three of them are more about social studies than science itself. They’re more about how science contributes in society than actually the core concepts of science. Things like that, I think, are causing a bit of flight from NCEA.”

Johnston said the Cambridge curriculum is better preparation for New Zealand university education, as well as international universities, compared with NCEA.

“It’s a much more rigorous curriculum than the New Zealand curriculum. NCEA has been particularly bad for science and mathematics.”

The Cambridge data comes as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced his 100-day plan this week, including several education initiatives including to begin disestablishing Te Pukenga, the polytech mega-merger; banning cellphones in schools; and appointing an expert group to redesign the English and maths curricula for primary school students.

Act Party leader David Seymour. Photo / Alex Burton

Act leader David Seymour is set to become the associate Education Minister dealing with charter schools and said the move towards the Cambridge curriculum is unsurprising if the NCEA is offering a “less globally relevant qualification not focused on core disciplines of human knowledge”.

Seymour also suggested the uptick in Cambridge enrolment may accentuate inequalities in students’ economic backgrounds.

“I can almost guarantee that the students taking advantage of Cambridge will on average be higher socio-economic students, and I base that on the fact that many of the schools offering Cambridge are either high-decile state schools or independent schools,” he said.

“So if you are poor, then you’re more reliant on the state qualification. And that’s why it’s so critical that the Government ensures the state qualification is world-class.”

NZQA deputy chief executive Jann Marshall told the Herald the NCEA curriculum is owned by the Ministry of Education.

However, Marshall offered some “general comments” on the merits of the NCEA and its review.

“Changes being made to NCEA will enhance the qualification in key areas, such as strengthening literacy and numeracy requirements. NZQA is working with the Ministry of Education to implement these changes,” Marshall said.

“We can’t speak for other school qualifications but universities across New Zealand tell us that NCEA prepares students well and NCEA students go on to further study across the world.”

Tom Dillane is an Auckland-based journalist covering local government and crime as well as sports investigations. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is deputy head of news.