Diocesan to offer girls choice of NCEA or baccalaureate

Diocesan School in Auckland is planning to join the ranks of schools providing overseas qualifications alongside the home-made NCEA by offering the International Baccalaureate.

The private girls' school will introduce the IB at both the primary and senior school diploma levels in 2008.

Two Wellington private schools - Scots College and Queen Margaret College - are also considering adopting the diploma for their Year 12 and 13 students by 2008.

Diocesan principal Ann Mildenhall said students could choose to do either the NCEA (National Certificate in Educational Achievement) or the IB - a two-year course for Year 12 and 13 students that runs in 120 countries.

"This is not about dissatisfaction with NCEA at all. The school has always supported NCEA and will continue to do so. It's about choice and it is more than just being about a qualification."

The Diocesan board made the decision last week and is working with the International Baccalaureate Organisation to get authorisation, which is expected by mid-2007.

A Scots College consultation paper estimates it will add over $600 a year to school fees for senior students.

Currently, only five schools in New Zealand offer the qualification - all of them independent.

Auckland Grammar has opted for Cambridge International Examinations rather than the IB partly because, it said, the IB is too expensive for a state school to set up and run.

Kristin School in Albany was the first to adopt it in 1986, and more than half its senior students now enrol in the diploma programme rather than the NCEA.

Mrs Mildenhall said Diocesan spent two years looking at alternative qualifications and chose the IB because it involved the whole school, from 5-year-olds up, rather than just the seniors.

"We've had some parents who have asked us whether we would consider offering any alternative," she said.

"So we are offering a dual pathway - girls can choose either NCEA or IB."

She said the world view of the Baccalaureate also appealed.

Other schools offering the IB are Auckland International College, John McGlashan College in Dunedin, St Margaret's College in Christchurch and Nga Tawa (Wellington Diocesan School for Girls) in Marton.