Confidence in NCEA exams drops sharply

Public confidence in the new national exam system has tumbled, an official survey reveals.

The study of attitudes towards the National Certificate of Educational Achievement reveals a growing belief that the system is leading to lower standards.

Increasing numbers of people consider the qualification easier than the Bursary and School Certificate exams it replaced, compared with a survey when the NCEA was introduced in 2002.

The survey will be officially released this morning by the Qualifications Authority, which devised the new system.

It has found that employers and the public increasingly believe that the NCEA is not an international-standard qualification.

Employers' views, in particular, have hardened since the first survey, with more than a third saying exam results are not useful and different schools have different standards.

Parents are not as negative, but the survey shows their perceptions have become less favourable since the last poll in March.

Crucially, the number of parents who feel the exams are less challenging has doubled since 2002 and more than half feel the change will lower education standards, compared with 29 per cent in the first survey.

"Of potential concern is the fact that parental and employer attitudes are showing some signs of increasing negativity, compared with 18 months ago," the report says.

"Contributing to this negative trend are perceptions that NCEA is less challenging than the previous system, that the same standards may not prevail in all schools, and that NCEA may not be a fair system.

"Among employers, there is also declining agreement that NCEA clearly reports student skills and achievements."

The survey was carried out in November by ACNielsen, which interviewed about 1000 people.

Qualifications Authority heads blamed the publicity surrounding Cambridge High School for the drop in confidence.

The Waikato school's principal, Alison Annan, and the board of trustees left after investigations in August into courses of low educational value that helped to produce a 100 per cent pass rate.

"The impact is evident, even though the concerns related to a small area of one school, affected only a small number of students, and were quickly rectified," said authority chief executive Karen Van Rooyen.

However, the survey shows that those with direct experience of the system are largely positive and most parents think it allows for flexible learning.

There has been an increase in the number of parents agreeing that NCEA reports clearly what a student knows and can do, and the perception that the system recognises excellence is also more positive.

The report says it will be important to focus next year on informing parents, employers, and the wider public about processes in place to ensure consistency of standards.

"There is a need, also, to address perceptions that NCEA is less challenging than previous qualifications, and that educational standards are declining."

The negative perceptions are not borne out by the facts, according to two international studies into academic performance released this month. Year 9 (14-year-olds) were consistently performing above the average of 46 other countries in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science study.

A report by the Programme for International Student Assessment showed 15-year-olds were better than the average of 41 countries, including 30 in the OECD, at reading, maths and science. But that report did show New Zealand students had dropped into the second bracket of nations.