English ridicules 'void' category for NCEA exams

National's education spokesman, Bill English, has criticised a decision by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to introduce a "standard not attempted" result in the NCEA exams.

Mr English said yesterday that it was a "void" result, neither a pass nor a fail, and would cause more confusion over the NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement).

He released a circular the authority sent to teachers and principals in October, which said blank answer booklets would be reported as SNA: standard not attempted.

The circular said students who decided not to attempt some standards should not mark their booklets in any way, because if they did the booklets would be treated as "live" and would be graded.

Mr English said the "void" category meant students could skip entire sections of a paper without failing.

"The only thing that the 'void' category achieves is another handy excuse for those responsible for overseeing the NCEA and still more confusion for students," he said.

The authority explained in its circular that some students had not made decisions about which standards they would attempt when entries closed on September 16.

Because it had not been able to remove booklets that were not going to be attempted, it decided to introduce the "standard not attempted" result to ensure they were treated differently to booklets that were attempted but the student did not achieve a result.

NCEA results are to be released on January 26 to 28. The national secondary school statistics will be issued in May.

- NZPA