Axing NCEA must proceed with caution: Catholic headmaster

In an opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, Sacred Heart College headmaster Patrick Walsh said the decision by the Education Minister to consult on scrapping the NCEA in favour of a new national qualification was “an easy one”.

Mr Walsh wrote that flaws that crept into the NCEA system over years, including a loss of academic rigour induced by broad flexibility, no clear career pathway in many cases and “credit-farming” rather than a focus on the foundations of literacy, numeracy and science “meant many students were ill-prepared for tertiary study or work”.

But NCEA had some redeeming features, Mr Walsh said. “We ought to aim to ‘hit the sweet spot’ and not lose the best elements of the NCEA.”

Mr Walsh said there are several elements needed in the national debate in this area. The straightjacketing of students early on into a vocational or academic pathway must be avoided, he said. “This could also morph into secondary schools being labelled in the same fashion as vocational or academic schools,” he warned.

While written examinations are a “useful and accurate tool for assessment”, there can be other ways of doing this that are equally valid and objective, notably in subjects such as technology and the arts. “The key is the standardisation of the assessment tool across schools.”

While giving students a grade in a subject is an objective snapshot of their achievement, it does not describe the knowledge and skills that students have acquired. “This ought to be retained in the new qualification.”

Mr Walsh said placing numeracy and literacy as the cornerstones of the new qualification is “both necessary and desirable”.

He also called for more support for many parents and schools to overcome learning deficits for some children, often caused by factors extrinsic to the school. Resources currently in place are insufficient for many schools, he said.

Mr Walsh added that “creating a high-quality qualification system without a clearly-defined curriculum and body of knowledge makes no sense”.

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Axing of NCEA must proceed with caution says headmaster (Patrick Walsh/New Zealand Herald – subscription required)