Labour completes NCEA u-turn

new-zealand-national-party

Mon May 14 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Labour completes NCEA u-turn

Monday, 14 May 2007, 8:26 am
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

“Revelations that the NZQA plans dramatic changes to the moderation of internal assessment within NCEA proves National was right to voice concerns,” says National Party Education spokeswoman Katherine Rich.

“In less than five months the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has gone from defending criticism from National, to announcing a pilot scheme which would implement National's call for random sampling of marked work, to now revealing that the plan is to eventually roll out changes for all secondary schools.

“What NZQA and the Minister have not explained, is why official warnings in 2001 about potential flaws in NCEA moderation were blindly ignored.

“It is not good enough for them to glibly deflect this question by saying ‘the positive is that it's happening now’. Thousands of students have been made guinea pigs in the meantime.

“Failing to explain the about face disrespects every student that has completed NCEA under the present model.

“The Rhoades Report in 2001 said that if there was not random sampling of internally marked work in NCEA, the validity of the moderation model would be affected.

“This advice was ignored and now, years down the track, NZQA finally admits the oversight.

“It’s clear the NZQA knew the lack of random sampling was potentially an Achilles Heel, but stubbornly refused to admit this publicly.”

When National criticised NZQA in January for failing to implement the recommendations of the 2001 Rhoades Report, the Authority said nothing was wrong and that results were more 'robust and reliable' than ever.

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“It’s now clear that behind the scenes there were deep concerns. I don’t understand why the Minister has been stubborn about admitting the problem.

“This issue is about maths not politics. If the sample size is wrong or not selected randomly, it can undermine the whole moderation model and ultimately faith in NCEA.

“The Rhoades report warned that if moderation was not robust there is 'no guarantee of fairness to each individual student'. If NZQA had accepted this advice back in 2001, it would have saved a lot of unnecessary concern," says Mrs Rich.

Ends

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