NCEA changes hypocritical politicking

new-zealand-national-party

Tue May 29 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

NCEA changes hypocritical politicking

Tuesday, 29 May 2007, 12:36 am
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

Katherine Rich MP
National Party Education Spokeswoman

29 May 2007

The Education Minister’s changes to NCEA are nothing but a cynical and calculated move to dampen criticism of the qualification and get it off the political agenda, says National’s Education spokeswoman Katherine Rich.

“For six years Labour has dismissed all criticism of NCEA and repeatedly told students, parents and educators that nothing was wrong.

“Today, in a stunning example of political amnesia, Steve Maharey unveiled a list of changes that only last year he personally opposed.

“There is an ‘H” word to describe this u-turn and it’s not Helen.

“Only six months ago, when National called for random-sampling for internal assessment moderation, the Minister and NZQA claimed there was nothing wrong. Then, the system was ‘robust and reliable’. That was the public line, but behind the scenes officials were already planning to do exactly that.

“National has consistently called for failure to be shown on a student’s record of learning and this has constantly been rejected by Labour. Steve Maharey’s announcement today that ‘not achieved’ will now be a feature of a student’s report card is nothing short of a complete u-turn.

“Some of the changes announced today Labour was told to implement six years ago, before NCEA was introduced. The Minister should explain to students, who have been guinea pigs in his NCEA experiment, why this advice wasn’t followed.

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“The Minister presents these changes to NCEA as a chimp-simple solution to concerns. The reality of what he proposes will not necessarily appease critics’ concerns, particularly about NCEA’s ability to motivate students.

“Steve Maharey has made a hash of tertiary education, a mess of broadcasting and now, surprisingly, Helen Clark has entrusted him with fixing NCEA.

“Labour’s handling of NCEA has been a political albatross. These changes are nothing more than an attempt to shrug it off, before it flaps disastrously into their election campaign.

“National understands the need for a strong school qualification that is respected by parents, educators, employers and students but this fiddly tinkering with the current system falls well short of a reasonable solution.”

ENDS

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