Exam inquiry ropes in NCEA

The Government has quietly widened the scholarship exam inquiry to cover all results of the new national certificate of education sat by school-leavers last year.

The decision means the inquiry will now cover the standard NCEA qualifications, not just the scholarship for the brightest students.

But the decision was not announced in the normal way, such as a press release. Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope mentioned the extension of the State Services Commission's inquiry during a question time in Parliament this week.

National's education spokesman, Bill English, has accused the Government of staying quiet about the extension as an attempt to "sneak out" news of the inquiry.

"After weeks of stonewalling, David Benson-Pope's change of heart and admission that there are problems has been followed by a bungled attempt to keep the inquiry low key."

The Qualification Authority has been accused of running a "lotto" qualification at NCEA levels 1 and 2 offered to classes in years 11 and 12, formerly the fifth and sixth forms.

The largest variable is an information technology exam at level 1, which just a quarter of last year's students passed compared with more than half in 2003.

Mr Benson-Pope said he was aware of public concern over variability in NCEA and the inquiry would examine the "apparent variation" in NCEA results, both between subjects and from one year to the next. Level 1 has been running three years and level 2 for two.

"I am not yet assured that the level of variability that was observed in the 2004 NCEA results was appropriate or acceptable," he said.

Last week the NZQA said it would investigate NCEA exam results at levels 1 and 2 where "significant variability" had been found.

But authority chief Karen Van Rooyen played this down, insisting it was standard practice to check a sample of results each year, and the variability was as expected.

"We are checking to see if any adjustments are required for 2005, but there is nothing special in that," and this kind of work takes place every year."

Mr English said of the wider inquiry that he was "appalled that the Government no longer believes the 2004 NCEA results are valid". 
 
The inquiries

* A review into variability in NCEA results.
* A review of the Qualifications Authority's performance.
* An investigation into last year's scholarship exams.
* An inquiry to check whether this year's scholarship exams are on track.
* An NZQA investigation of variable NCEA exam results at levels 1 and 2.
* An internal NZQA review to determine why Trevor Mallard was not alerted sooner.