NZQA botch-up leads to extra scholarships

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has given additional $10,000 premier scholarships to two students who discovered an error in the published criteria for the prized award, Parliament was told yesterday.

National education spokesman Bill English said NZQA secretly changed the criteria but Education Minister Steve Maharey said NZQA thought it had clearly explained that three outstanding scholarships was the minimum requirement for a premier award, but it had not.