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Education Minister<br />
Chris Hipkins with<br />
students.<br />
STYLE | education 25<br />
NCEA – what is it, does it<br />
work & where is it going?<br />
Juliet Speedy reports on what the future of secondary school education<br />
might look like now that NCEA is under review.<br />
The National Certificate of Educational Achievement<br />
(NCEA) is now 15 years old and hasn’t been without<br />
its controversy. The assessment system NCEA came under<br />
a lot of criticism in the early years as people adjusted to it,<br />
though many teachers now approve of it. A 2015 survey<br />
found that 69 per cent of teachers and 95 per cent of<br />
principals supported it. Now, it is under review. The review<br />
has been directed by new Education Minister Chris Hipkins<br />
and has been welcomed by many.<br />
But those of us who have never studied under it or had<br />
children go through it are often still confused about what<br />
NCEA really is and how it works.<br />
So, what is NCEA? It is the official secondary school<br />
qualification in New Zealand. It is awarded at three levels<br />
in the last three years of secondary education. For those of<br />
us educated before that, essentially NCEA Level 1 replaced<br />
School Certificate, Level 2 replaced Sixth Form Certificate<br />
and Level 3 replaced Bursary.
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