Qualifications Authority was warned last year about exam problems

Education officials were warned last year about problems with the new school-leavers' scholarship exams that resulted in hundreds of top students failing and the Government stepping in to give replacement awards.

The Post Primary Teachers Association said the scholarship debacle was completely avoidable and the NZ Qualifications Authority was warned about the impending problems numerous times last year.

Yesterday Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope and the NZQA came under increasing pressure to explain what had gone wrong with the exams which resulted in 1848 fewer scholarships awarded to students last year than in 2003.

The education and science select committee said it would start an inquiry into the setting of NCEA exam questions, which would look at how the questions were set and by whom, how they were scrutinised and the politicisation of questions.

On Tuesday, the Government announced 373 special "distinction awards" would be given to students because of the high failure rates in scholarship exams, especially in the science subjects.

Mr Benson-Pope has also been ordered to report back to the Cabinet by the end of next month about how the problem can be avoided in this year's exams.

During a snap debate on the issue in Parliament yesterday, National Party education spokesman Bill English said, in a withering attack, that Cabinet had effectively become the examiner-in-chief by intervening and the scholarship problem had wrecked the lives of hundreds of young people who had missed out on awards.

Mr English produced a document showing the problems had been raised at the Secondary Principals and Leaders Forum, convened by the Ministry of Education, last August.

The document said teachers had been reluctant to enter students for scholarship because they did not know how it would be examined, reflecting an apparent lack of confidence in the exams.

He asked Mr Benson-Pope to confirm whether the Minister of Education and NZQA were advised about it.

Mr Benson-Pope, who only replaced Trevor Mallard as the Minister responsible for the compulsory education sector in December, said he could not confirm it.

Last night, Mr Benson-Pope could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman said the Minister would be asking NZQA whether advice had been received last year about concerns over the scholarship exams.

PPTA president Debbie Te Whaiti told the Herald the PPTA and other organisations raised concerns numerous times with NZQA about the scholarship exams.

The concerns centred around the variance in marks predicted between subjects and the lack of knowledge teachers had about what would be in the exams.

Ms Te Whaiti said teachers had essentially been "flying blind" when it came to the content of the scholarship exams. But despite the warnings, NZQA said they had the matter in hand. "They were certainly saying they were managing the risk."

Ms Te Whaiti said NZQA could have avoided the current situation. "I think they certainly had enough advice, but they weren't able to or didn't heed the advice."

Secondary Principals Association president Paul Ferris said the organisation had asked to be on the committee supervising the introduction of scholarship, but its request was "overlooked".

He said NZQA needed to face up to the mess and fix it so confidence in the system could be restored.

"If NZQA expects schools to support this exam in 2005 they will need to be accountable to Principals' organisations."

Mr English said he also raised concerns about scholarship last year and asked questions in Parliament in November about how the system would work.

NZQA said yesterday that as a result of the concerns expressed at the Secondary Principals and Leaders Forum last August it brought together all the scholarship panel leaders, before marking began, who developed "clear and consistent" guidelines to be used across all subjects.

Act education spokeswoman Deborah Coddington called for heads to roll at NZQA. "It is simply not good enough that students who have slogged their guts out for a year to achieve top marks have been mucked around."

The Herald understands the Cabinet is furious with NZQA, but Mr Benson-Pope has publicly stood by the authority.

What is the NZQA?

* The New Zealand Qualifications Authority, a Crown Entity, was established in 1990 to co-ordinate national qualifications and provide an overarching role in quality-assured qualifications.

* NZQA's vision statement is world-class qualifications for all.

* Chief executive is Karen Van Rooyen: a trained physical education teacher who has worked at a school for dyslexics in the US, at the Open Polytechnic, for the Office of Treaty Settlements, the prison service and the Ministry of Maori Development. Joined NZQA in 2001.