Education Minister Trevor Mallard put the blame for teething problems with the National Certification of Educational Achievement (NCEA) firmly on teachers when he appeared before a parliamentary committee yesterday.
Problems were bound to occur when introducing a major qualification such as the NCEA, he told the education and science committee.
But those
problems were exacerbated by protracted industrial action as pay negotiations dragged on through the year.
"A boycott of NCEA matters for months on end, a refusal to attend workshops because of a ban from the Post Primary Teachers Association national executive, I think, is a reason that a lot of teachers were not well on top of this approach," said Mr Mallard.
" ... I think it's fair to say industrial and other matters caused some disruption."
Resistance to change was also a problem because teachers were "often slightly older people who are slightly conservative and take a while to accept change".
Mr Mallard did not accept the assertions by PPTA president Jen McCutcheon, Secondary Principals Association president Bali Haque and School Trustees Association manager Ray Newport to the committee that NCEA implementation was under-resourced.
Mr Mallard said had no plans to resign his portfolio over the implementation problems, but accepted responsibility.
Asked if he was confident New Zealand would not repeat Scotland's experience, where introduction of a similar system resulted in 40 per cent of students getting the wrong results, he said: "I certainly hope that it won't."
- NZPA
