NCEA on the right track

Media Release
17 Oct 2007

NCEA on the right track

An NZCER report which shows strong support for NCEA amongst educators is a breath of fresh air following the negative publicity earlier this year, PPTA president Robin Duff said today.

He said the report showed that the qualifications system was continuing to settle despite repeated criticisms from a vocal minority.

“NCEA is working because of teacher goodwill and professional determination to make it work for their students.

“They are using the flexibility within the NCEA to deliver appropriate and personalised learning for their students.

However, he said the government must remain committed to resolving problems raised by teachers and students.

“There are still important issues to resolve such as the impact of NCEA implementation on teachers’ workloads and the burden of too much assessment that the report notes.

“Secondary teachers also urgently want quality moderated tasks and exemplars across all achievement and unit standards used in secondary schools.

“They want the Ministry of Education to fully resource time for the people responsible for implementing NCEA in schools, and to fund the specific costs associated with moderation storage and procedures such as colour photocopying, visual and sound reproduction.

“In addition, they want the government to address the disparity of esteem between unit standards and achievement standards.

“There are lots of examples of quality moderated tasks and exemplars being produced around the country on a daily basis.

“With current technology it seems woefully inadequate to not be able to have these resources shared in the collaborative and professional manner that we know is the preferred practice for teachers in New Zealand.”

ENDS

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