NCEA threatened by government meddling - PPTA

NCEA threatened by government meddling - PPTA

The government’s target of 85% of students achieving NCEA level 2 risks undermining the qualification and encourages ‘credit farming’ in schools, warns PPTA.

NCEA was a qualification teachers had committed to making work because they knew it was a better system for students than the previous one, PPTA president Angela Roberts said.

“But the way that it’s being misused now, thanks to government pressure, risks damaging it beyond repair.”

A paper for PPTA’s annual conference released today The NCEA: can it be saved?Sets out an array of problems with the qualification caused by political meddling and a lack of willingness to address long-standing, fundamental issues.

These include;

• The perverse incentives created by the 85% target, which put teachers under pressure to get students as many credits as possible without regard for the quality and coherence of the learning programme.

• Failure to address issues of parity between different types of credits. Teachers believe many industry unit standards deliver more credits for less work than achievement standards – a problem NZQA has refused to address despite years of warnings.

• Unnecessary moderation demands leading to excessive paperwork for teachers, taking time away from other valuable work. Moderation is important, but NZQA puts demands on teachers time that are not resourced. NCEA related workload is one of the biggest demands on teachers’ time.

• Universities wielding too much power over the senior curriculum. While university is the destination of only around 30% of students, University Entrance requirements stifle innovation in senior programmes.

“The government must act to protect our national qualification system,” Roberts said.

“Teachers want a credible, robust and fair assessment system and that should be NCEA.”

“If the government fails to act on the recommendations in this paper, we will see further erosion in public and teacher acceptance of NCEA, which risks turning back the clock to the 1990s when school qualifications were politicised and dogged by problems,” she said.

PPTA’s Annual Conference will be held from 29 September to 1 October in Wellington. The full conference papers can be downloaded here:http://www.ppta.org.nz/events/annual-conference/3447-papers-annual-conference-2015

ENDS

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