Cameron Stuart: Nonsensical system lacks integrity

Cameron Stuart says the NCEA fails to promote excellence. Picture / Greg Bowker

I have sat more than 130 examinations in my time at school - I could be the most-examined student in recent years.

I have been involved in so many assessments that I know I am probably one of the most qualified people to speak on New Zealand's present and past education systems.

I have very little praise to give to one system, and very little criticism to give to the other.

Our present education system fails to promote excellence in secondary schools.

Every student should aim for excellence and be encouraged to achieve the best he or she can. Regrettably, the NCEA neither provides the opportunity nor creates the motivation for any student to excel.

It seems to me that the Education Ministry is intentionally limiting the ability of our country's academic elite to reach for the stars, rather than trying to improve the results of underachieving students.

The issue of the system's integrity is extremely important. Although there are three grades of achievement, which one would be inclined to believe were an indication of higher or lower academic ability, they are meaningless due to an incongruous marking scheme.

Students are marked down an entire grade over trivial technicalities, which in a traditional examination would cost the candidate only half a mark. Marking schedules are scandalous and should not be relied upon as a true indication of a candidate's ability.

Its stupidity is demonstrated when a student who correctly answers more than half the achievement questions in an exam and scarcely more than half the merit questions will get a "merit" pass.

Another student who gets under half the achievement questions correct and then gets all the merit questions and all the excellence questions right gets "not achieved".

This is nonsensical. Under any normal system, the merit student would get 50 per cent, and the failed student would actually get more than 80 per cent.

NCEA fails students who don't deserve to fail and passes students who don't deserve to pass.

The Scholarship examination is even more ridiculous. It aims to identify and reward the top scholars.

It is ironic that the system is rewarding students who don't study the subject (King's College student Benedict Tompkins, who attained Scholarship geography without attending a single lesson in the subject) and failing students who are the best in the world (Robina Ang, who was among only four students in Australasia accepted into the prestigious London Science School).

How can such a system exist? Why should we settle for mediocrity?

It is frustrating and infuriating that the Labour Government refuses to accept that NCEA has fatal flaws both in its edifice and implementation. A fair and decent system would not cause the controversy that there is among our country's top educational leaders.

* Former Auckland Grammar School prefect Cameron Stuart, one of the first generation of NCEA students, writes about his tussles with the system. The 18-year-old is now studying law and arts at Auckland University.