Prime Minister renews NZQA blast

The Prime Minister has again attacked the Qualifications Authority over its role in the scholarship debacle, saying it was cavalier and that someone needs to take responsibility.

Helen Clark's comments yesterday have revived speculation that heads will roll - the likely candidates being NZQA chief executive Karen Van Rooyen and board chairman Professor Graeme Fraser.

In contrast Helen Clark was protective of the role Education Minister Trevor Mallard played in the controversy, in which hundreds of New Zealand's best students failed to get scholarships.

The debacle has caused political embarrassment to the Government and forced it to create replacement "distinction awards" in an attempt to correct the high failure rate in the exams and placate angry students, parents and teachers.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister said Mr Mallard - who came under fire from the Opposition last week for allegedly trying to cover-up the mess - was a longstanding colleague who was "particularly able".

She said Mr Mallard could not be expected to take responsibility for officials at the NZQA and he would have expected the organisation to act in a professional way.

Helen Clark said the NZQA had acted in a "cavalier fashion" over the exam debacle. The authority had made a mistake not moderating the exams between subjects to make sure they were the same level of difficulty.

The failure to do so resulted in a high level of variability of pass rates between subjects.

She said this was compounded when the NZQA sent the exam papers back to students on January 7, "which wiped any possibility we had of getting them remarked, moderated and scaled to get results more in keeping with what one would expect."

Helen Clark said no one at the NZQA was willing to admit they had made a mistake. "Tthe point is someone in NZQA has to take responsibility for having poor systems."

She said there was a fundamental difference of opinion between the Government and the NZQA.

"We think there is a problem , I don't think that they do."

She did not go as far as saying Ms Van Rooyen or Professor Fraser should resign, saying she needed to see what the State Service Commission inquiry into the organisation determined. "But I would be very surprised if doesn't point to systems failures."

It is not the first time Helen Clark has expressed her disapproval of the NZQA. Last week, she said it was "on the mat" over the mess.

That outburst prompted speculation that Ms Van Rooyen would resign but the chief executive said she was staying to put things right.

Two Government-ordered inquiries into the scholarship exams have been launched. In addition an internal NZQA inquiry is being undertaken to establish why the minister was not warned earlier about the problems.