Statutory Manager Won’t Help Save NCEA
12/8/04
Statutory Manager Won’t Help Save NCEA
“The Minister of Education Mr. Mallard, The NZQA and the Children’s’ Commissioner must take most of the responsibility for the failure of the NCEA at Cambridge High” said Peter Calvert Concerned Teachers spokesperson. “All three failed to take heed of warnings the NCEA would result in a massive dumbing down of education standards and treat students as educational guinea pigs ”. Cambridge High is just an example of this and these problems were predicted by my group as early as 1999.
“The appointment of a limited statutory manager at Cambridge by Mr. Mallard is just a bandage on a much larger problem. The vast majority of research says that NCEA style testing cannot be made to work in academic subjects. New Zealand’s leading assessment experts such as Professor Warwick Elley and Dr Cedric hall have been highly critical of NCEA”.
“Mr. Mallard, the NZQA and the Children’s Commissioner chose to ignore the research and now students are paying the price. Lets face it when a student goes to an employer with an NCEA gained at Cambridge High their qualification is not likely to be of much use”.
“After all as time goes on people will realise that you don’t just get NCEA from picking up rubbish, NCEA is rubbish”.
ENDS