Agriculture secondary students blocked

Students studying agriculture and horticulture will not be assessed at a scholarship level next year - because education authorities think not enough of them will pass.

The students will be able to continue their subjects at level three of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) - but not at level four, the scholarship scheme also being introduced in 2004 for "top" students.

NCEA level 1 replaced School Certificate last year. Level 2 is replacing Sixth Form Certificate in most schools this year, and the Government wants level 3 and scholarship to replace Bursary next year.

NCEA spokesman Bill Lennox said yesterday that the Bursary exam of previous years was being replaced by NCEA level 3, which could qualify students for university entrance.

"They don't need to do the scholarship level to get university entrance," he said.

Level 3 results would also count towards restricted-entry courses where specific academic prowess was required.

The new scholarship level had the same content as level 3, but would be restricted.

"We expect about the top 5 per cent to sit," Mr Lennox said.

But of the 700 students who sat Bursary examinations in agriculture and horticulture last year, only 16 achieved results at what was expected to be the "scholarship level" next year.

"We had to ask ourselves, is it viable to run an examination where only 16 people are likely to pass?" he said.

The exam did three jobs at once: sorting out university entrance, bursaries and scholarships. The markers advised each year on a cut-off point for the scholarships, which in most subjects was about 4 per cent of candidates. In agriculture and horticulture last year, it was 2 per cent.

"If you're going to do agriculture or horticulture at university, at degree level, then you're going to need 'pure sciences'," Mr Lennox said. Those students were likely to be taking subjects such as biology or chemistry.

At NCEA levels 1 and 2, students were entering to gain specific qualifications, such as certificates of agriculture, which they would otherwise complete while working.

"You're not going to do soil science unless you've got some chemistry," he said. Students planning on going to university could, with the help of their school, put together studies to cover science subjects as well as agriculture.

Mr Lennox said a row had blown up over a suggestion that the Minister of Education did not think agriculture and horticulture were "academic enough" to be offered for scholarship level exams.

"The minister didn't make the decision," he said. An NZQA staff member had told someone that the NZQA had decided there was not enough critical mass for agriculture to be examined at level 4, and that the minister agreed.

Palmerston North Boys' High School rector Tim O'Connor said this week that agriculture and horticulture were on the list of scholarship subjects in the draft for NCEA level 4 a few weeks ago.

When the final list came out it was not included.

The director of Massey University's agriculture programme, Stuart Morriss, said the decision "sends a totally inappropriate message to students and their parents that it is not an academic subject".

- NZPA