KEY POINTS:
Statistics detailing the performance of more than 150,000 senior secondary school students went online last week and are available on the NZQA website.
Just as the Herald said: "NCEA results get better at all levels".
In the space of a day, however, the debate turned from how well students had done to a suggestion that secondary-school qualifications were being undermined by internal assessment.
The role of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority is to implement Government policy on assessment. And there is no policy of moving to increased use of internal assessment.
The authority has great confidence in the professionalism of teachers carrying out internal assessment, which has been done at schools since the early 1990s.
Quite rightly, NZQA does not put a different value on credits gained through internal assessment. In life, the most effective learning is done in this way - and school-based assessment is recognised as of value in modern education systems.
But utilising both external and internal assessment makes the National Certificate of Educational Achievement a flexible pathway enabling personalised learning.
It is no longer acceptable to have an education system that tolerates failure.
It must be responsive and flexible enough to ensure all young people achieve to their potential and embark on lifelong learning. That is what personalised learning is about.
The introduction of standards-based assessment has allowed us to recognise achievement at all levels, and surely this must be applauded.
Standards are based on the New Zealand curriculum, and for New Zealand conditions.
There is little doubt that we are mature enough as a nation to have a qualifications system that is ours.
Meanwhile, the development of the very demanding scholarship exams identifies our top students.
NCEA is internationally recognised as robust and credible and is used by thousands of students each year as a pathway to tertiary study in New Zealand and overseas.
Our qualifications are internationally benchmarked. This means that each level of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is specifically described so that the standards and the qualifications in the NQF can be compared internationally.
For instance, the National Recognition Information Centre in Britain accepts a level 3 NCEA and University Entrance - with some merits and excellences in subjects to be studied at higher-education institutions - as comparable with the overall GCE Advanced Standard (A levels).
New Zealand also has qualification recognition agreements with Australia. And our qualifications are recognised, for most purposes, in the United States, including tertiary education and employment.
The suggestion that Auckland University has made courses "open entry" because NCEA does not allow it to identify top scholars is incorrect.
As the Herald reported on December 7, "the change was not prompted by any difficulty in weighing up the differing credits of NCEA students".
There is increasing anecdotal evidence that those who achieve well in NCEA perform well at university. It is highly likely that one reason for this is the structure of NCEA which, along with external assessment, includes the facility for internal assessment, the foundation of learning at university level.
Broadly speaking, about half the achievement standards are internally assessed and half externally assessed. All unit standards are internally assessed - as they were designed to be.
NZQA is committed to improving all aspects of assessment, and adjustments will continue as we refine NCEA and scholarship processes.
This process has seen the Record of Learning redesigned to make it clearer and more easily understood.
This is sent to all learners who have gained qualifications each year, showing what they have achieved.
Standards are now grouped in areas of study and clearly indicate what skills and knowledge are required to gain achievement.
This is a major improvement on the previous examination system that simply gave a percentage score for one subject.
Under the previous system, a 70 per cent pass mark for English, for instance, offered no information on what 70 per cent of the subject a candidate had achieved in, and what 30 per cent they had not achieved.
Work is also being done on moderation, or quality assurance, of internal assessment. A sampling pilot in September, involving 89 schools, will enable comparison with the routine moderation that will also take place as scheduled.
Transparency is also a key element of NCEA. That includes the statistics being online. In addition, national examination papers are returned to candidates showing exactly how they were marked. This allows feedback.
Profiles of expected performance provide the public with information about how each standard is marked - they are all available on the website.
New Zealand has an education and assessment system that is admired internationally.
Debate about the system is healthy, but should have a sound factual base to ensure students are well served.
* Bali Haque is deputy chief executive, qualifications, NZQA
