KEY POINTS:
Running the new national exams system is burdening high schools with extra costs and increasing pressure on already strained budgets, principals claim.
A national survey of schools by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research found 91 per cent of principals said implementing the National Certificate of Educational Achievement system had "many hidden costs".
Secondary Principals Council chairman Arthur Graves said the Government recognised there were extra costs when it introduced an NCEA allowance for schools in 2004.
But at $5.42 for each student in Year 11 and above this year, it was inadequate, he said.
The allowance will rise by 4 per cent to $5.64 for each of the students next year.
Mr Graves said schools were having to find the money to pay for a big increase in photocopying and higher administration costs.
He said schools had to buy and maintain extra computers to digitally report results to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority under NCEA.
It was one of a series of increasing pressures on school funding.
"The flow-on costs from all these new Government initiatives and expectations, and NCEA is a major one, have put more pressure on school funding," said Mr Graves.
Ministry of Education research identified assessment costs arising from NCEA as a cost pressure in a review of operational funding released late last year. The document, commissioned amid an uproar about schools having to increasingly rely on parent "donations", said its reference group did not believe schools had been adequately compensated for the ongoing costs of NCEA.
It showed the rise in locally raised funds grew 89 per cent between 1995 and 2004, compared with a 37 per cent rise in Government grants.
Secondary Principals Association president Peter Gall said schools were lobbying for more funds to administer NCEA via a Government review of operational funding. Photocopying might not sound expensive but the increased cost ran into thousands at a big school.
"Just the practice exam round, it's huge," said Mr Gall, principal of the 1800-student Papatoetoe High School.
"You might have 300 students sitting the Level 2 English exam but instead of just doing one exam, they might be doing three standards - so it's like having three separate exam papers."
He said teachers new to a school needed training in its assessment processes, adding to the cost burden.
Post Primary Teachers Association president Robin Duff said teachers were struggling under the extra workload.v
