Style: March 02, 2018

So, what could the future look like? Education
Minister Chris Hipkins says over-assessment of
students and teacher workload will be addressed in
this year’s review but NCEA will not be scrapped
altogether.
Hipkins told Style, New Zealand has a world-class
education system “but there’s always room for
improvement”.
“Part of the issue is that it has become about
credit accumulation rather than skill accumulation
without enough focus on what that all adds up to.”
He says many students are doing more credits
than they need to and also not gaining the correct
skill set for the areas they’re going into.
He agrees with Juliet Collins that over-assessment
is a big issue and the system focusses on constantly
measuring rather than teaching and learning. “I want
to tip the focus back to teaching and learning.”
He says this review will result in an evolution of
the current system where they will build on the
strength of NCEA and refine it.
Alex Tapper does not believe New Zealand’s
current education system is world class. “In fact,
many of the top universities around the world,
including Oxford and Cambridge, do not recognise
it as a rigorous-enough education system for the
type of students they seek at their institution.”
Alex is currently teaching in Thailand and plans to
teach all over the world learning about education
systems and their pathways for students. “From
this I hope to move into academia in New Zealand
and look at policy changes that could improve the
education system.”
Juliet Collins says she gets tired of hearing NCEA
criticised roundly and that it has fantastic qualities.
“It is important to remind ourselves that the
qualifications that NCEA replaced were punitive,
unfair and anachronistic.”
She believes the future of education in New
Zealand is very bright. “However, education, that is
teaching and learning – truly drawing out the best
from students, should not be confused with what
National Standards did which was to provide a
funnel to inhibit learning for the sake of assessment.
I am truly glad to see National Standards gone as I
believed they discouraged learning. I would like to
see a wide-ranging review that really listens to the
issues around assessment versus learning.”
So, NCEA is here to stay but it’s some of these
concerns by teachers and students alike that may
see crucial changes made to it.
“I am truly glad to see National
Standards gone as I believed they
discouraged learning.”