Some schools, such as Whanganui Collegiate School (pictured), replaced NCEA Level 1 with Cambridge International Education and IGCSE.
NCEA has failed our kids
As a parent of a child who has just finished secondary school, I support the overhaul of the NCEA.
As it stands it’s designed so no child has a sense of failure, which is nice, but it doesn’t help our kids prepare for the real world.
We can’t wait for a big review though, so I suggest there’s a couple of simple things we can do in time for the 2026 school year.
We can replace the non-aspirational pass/merit/excellence grades with the 6-point grades, which some schools already use.
And the credit system can change so students can only achieve all their credits through internal assessment if they’re taking a practical subject.
As soon as possible there is lots more we need to do to help the kids who leave school without qualifications and give extra stem lessons to our top students, but let’s start with some easy wins.
Karen Couper, Birkenhead.
Price of butter
Bruce Cotterill’s column on butter prices was very insightful. I was thinking the discussion around butter prices might be quite nuanced with talking points around the near monopoly power of a single-desk seller, the socialisation of environmental externalities and the privatisation of profits for instance.
Apparently, though, as a country we are a bunch of economically underachieving ingrates and it’s all about the politics of envy.
It has always been the case, and will be for a long time to come, that farmers are the backbone of the country, and I know farmers who are doing amazing things for the environment and achieving great production. The environment versus farming need not be a zero sum game as Cotterill implies.
In fact, as one beef producer told me, if you can produce food for 40 million people you might as well feed the richest 40 million and they care about how that food is produced. So, while talking about grumpy cardigan wearers moaning about farting cows and effluent going into rivers is a great rhetorical device in lieu of intelligent discourse, a lot of people do care about rivers and the environment.
I think the real problem with pricing in general in New Zealand is that, with a lack of competition, prices seem to be set to what the market will bear.
Andrew Moyle, Kerikeri.
Tourist levy
It would be better to charge all tourists a levy of $100 than have them making a choice of which sites they choose to visit.
A $100 fee on top of a $5000 vacation does not sound much, but $40 on top of a boat trip seems a lot. Having a choice will mean some miss out and some do not, for example, lake visits may gain while mountain trails may lose out, while the cost of any type of maintenance may be the other way around.
With my suggestion, all would gain from an even share of the $100 charge.
Bob Wichman, Botany.
Motorway graffiti remains
On November 12 last year, I commented in this paper about motorway graffiti. A response from a council official days later assured me and all those who read his response that it would be fixed. Dear Sir, the mess is not cleaned up. It is unchanged and indeed worse. Thank you for another empty promise.
John Ford, Taradale.
Child labour on farms
Haven’t farmers got enough to do without having to deal with Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden’s suggestions on the safety of children doing chores on farms like collecting eggs, feeding small animals and watering plants.
Or maybe it’s the minister who has a crisis of identity and needs some sort of crusading issue, supposedly greater than herself, to give purpose to her life so as to free herself from the stigma of being the only minister to use the c-word during a parliamentary debate.
In the meantime, there are mental health issues throughout the farming community, there are problems of erosion due to extreme weather events and then there are rising costs of just running a farm.
Good on van Velden for trying to rehabilitate herself from her previous dubious use of language by championing the cause of protecting children from slipping on a cowpat. After all, cuddling children, metaphorically speaking, is good positive political fodder. Is she hoping that this humanitarian initiative might resonate for her right up until the next election?
Bernard Walker, Mount Maunganui.