KEY POINTS:
Mediocre students getting an easy ride under NCEA will have to work much harder to gain their qualifications under new rules announced by the Government.
And schools that have abused the system by setting easy tasks to push up their pass rates will face more rigorous scrutiny.
The wide-ranging changes to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement were revealed yesterday by Education Minister Steve Maharey.
He said the number of internally assessed papers checked by the NZ Qualifications Authority would be boosted threefold to 10 per cent from next year.
A team of fulltime specialist staff would be hired.
The moves follow concerns that some schools are marking students too highly and setting easy tasks to push up their overall pass rates.
But Mt Albert Grammar School headmaster Dale Burden said that although the increase in checking was an improvement, it wasn't enough.
He said the figure should be lifted to 50 per cent and be reduced as confidence in the system grew.
He said teachers across the country were asked to make consistent decisions, but were not given enough guidance.
"This is high stakes - internal assessment counts as much as external," said Mr Burden.
"For some students, it's all they do."
Education Secretary Karen Sewell said schools would be monitored to ensure their internal assessment marks did not markedly differ from their external assessments. Reports for each school would be placed on the internet.
This would enable the NZQA to easily spot schools which were too lenient in marking internal assessments. Such schools could be given help, or, in extreme cases, be barred from offering NCEA.
In another change, students' certificates will give more information about levels of achievement. The words "merit" and "excellence" will be able to be shown, rather than only the standard "achieved".
From next year, fail marks will also be included, indicated by the words "not achieved".
The changes, part of a long-promised "design review" of the qualification, follow repeated criticism that students were not rewarded for hard work, and were not pushed to do any more than the bare minimum needed to get the 80 credits needed to pass each level.
The changes have been welcomed by Business New Zealand, the School Trustees Association and the Post-Primary Teachers' Association.
But the National Party says they are "a cynical and calculated move to dampen criticism of the qualification and get it off the political agenda".
Its education spokeswoman, Katherine Rich, said the change to moderation of internal assessment was a u-turn, as Mr Maharey had defended the present system.
National had also repeatedly called for "not achieved" to be recorded, but Labour had rejected it.
"Some of the changes announced today Labour was told to implement six years ago, before NCEA was introduced," she said.
"For six years, Labour has dismissed all criticism of NCEA and repeatedly told students, parents and educators that nothing was wrong."
PPTA president Robin Duff said the changes would benefit students and teachers.
But many teachers would see recording "not achieved" on student records as backing away from "the fundamental principle of having a standards-based assessment to report only achievement".
Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said the boost to checking internal assessment marks would reassure employers that assessments were fair.
