KEY POINTS:
A nationwide survey of schools has shown a high level of support for NCEA among principals, but dwindling support and a high level of confusion among parents.
Parental support for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement has dropped from 44 per cent in 2003 to 37 per cent
last year, according to initial findings from the 2006 survey of secondary schools by the Council for Educational Research, an independent research body.
The number of parents who were not sure if they supported it increased over the same period, from 35 per cent to 39 per cent in the survey, which is a follow-up to a 2003 survey of parents, teachers, principals and trustees and due for release in about two months.
However, nearly 90 per cent of school principals either agreed or strongly agreed when asked if they supported NCEA, up slightly from 2003 when the NCEA was in its second year and level two was just being introduced.
A similar number rejected a return to the School Certificate system and just 10 per cent wanted to ditch the NCEA altogether.
Chief researcher Dr Rosemary Hipkins said the findings were not yet complete, but "parental disquiet" was clearly a driving factor in the recent decisions of several schools to consider adopting an alternative to NCEA, such as the Cambridge International Examinations or International Baccalaureate Diploma.
"Parents may think they want the Cambridge exam but it is questionable how well it serves students. These findings illustrate the dangers for schools in basing hugely important and complex assessment decisions on parental opinion.
"Parents - and students can tell you this - have not on the whole got to grips with NCEA."
She said it was clear nobody wanted to return to the old system of external examinations, but the lack of understanding of NCEA was a concern and attributable to conflicting information.
Full results from the survey are due in two months. It is expected to add to a groundswell of academic support for the NCEA system, after research led by Auckland University education professor John Hattie which found NCEA was a better system to predict how students would perform at university than the Cambridge International Examinations.
Dr Hipkins said she was not surprised at Professor Hattie's findings.
"There are things about NCEA that require students to stand on their own two feet and make more autonomous decisions rather than be spoon-fed."
She was concerned a small group of schools and commentators were dominating the debate.