23 February, 2005

Coddington wrong

ACT's Deborah Coddington is wrong in claiming no decision has been made on mechanisms for review or reconsideration of scholarship scripts, says Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope.

Mr Benson-Pope says he publicly announced his decisions on the time students would have to submit their scripts for review or reconsideration and the fees for this on February 14.

These decisions can be found on the Beehive website [http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.cfm?DocumentID=22198] or on the New Zealand Qualifications website [http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea]. They were also widely distributed to the media.

In making those decisions Mr Benson-Pope stated that he was particularly influenced by the fact that under the existing policy if mistakes are found in the marking of exam scripts then the application fee is refunded automatically.

Mr Benson-Pope stated at the time: "Regrettably, the call by some to have the fee waived entirely, may have given some students the impression that their papers might be remarked under different criteria or that grades would be adjusted as a result. This is not what the review and reconsideration process is for."

Mr Benson-Pope says Ms Coddington may be guilty of creating just such a wrong impression. He says it is disappointing that Ms Coddington has done such a poor job keeping up with these important issues.

ENDS

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