English refuses to apologise to college

National's education spokesman, Bill English, says he will not apologise to the Hauraki Plains College at Ngatea for alleging it had cheated in the assessment of National Certificate in Educational Achievement.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard yesterday said Mr English's complaints had been based on stolen documents and the word of a liar.

Mr Mallard told Parliament that a box of students' books, handed to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority last week, contained no evidence of cheating.

He said Mr English had privately apologised to the school, and challenged him to repeat the apology in public.

Mr English told MPs: "I have not apologised to the school."

The MP later said he had spoken to the school to assure them that he was intent on attacking Government policy and not the school.

"I did not apologise and I stand by everything I said."

In Parliament, Mr English said Mr Mallard continued to ignore widespread concerns about the NCEA and how it was being implemented and monitored.

Mr Mallard said the problems at Cambridge High School were real and being investigated, but Mr English's wrongful attack on Hauraki Plains had done nothing to improve confidence in the NCEA.

The minister also claimed that Mr English had received a tongue lashing from Coromandel MP Sandra Goudie in National's caucus meeting yesterday. Mrs Goudie told the Herald last night that the claim was "patently untrue".

As reported in the Herald last week, the school at the centre of the row discovered a relief teacher had signed off work that was not up to standard.

Principal Ngaire Harris said all students involved had been stripped of their marks and systems put in place to ensure the same problem could not happen again.

Mr English last night said "increasingly hysterical claims" about his criticism of the NCEA showed the Government was worried about the credibility of its policy.

- NZPA