'Secrecy' charge over NCEA marking

NCEA exam markers have been forced to unofficially and secretly re-mark a paper where too many students were failing, says National MP Bill English.

The education spokesman yesterday claimed the public had been misled over the extent of re-marking in this year's NCEA exams.

Both Education Minister Steve Maharey and the Qualifications Authority (NZQA) reject the allegation, saying they have been working to ensure an "open and transparent" marking process in the wake of the high-profile problems with last year's exams.

NZQA yesterday added two more standards - level 2 classics and level 2 accounting - to the list of papers being re-marked.

Of the 335 standards within NCEA, 11 have now been re-marked because either too many or too few students had met the standard.

But Mr English says the number is likely to be considerably higher than 11.

In Parliament yesterday he tabled an email from an exam marker which said check markers were "hammered" by NZQA. The check markers were instructing markers to tweak results so more candidates got Achieved grades.

Mr English also produced another email from a check marker to a group of markers instructing them to go back over the papers of students who had Not Achieved grades to see if they could "push them up" to Achieved.

"It suggests that any sign at all of a student understanding the question is sufficient to change the grade," Mr English said.

He said the emails refer to an examination that is not on NZQA's list of 11 standards that have been officially re-marked.

The Herald spoke to the exam marker, who said she was unhappy at having to pass students she believed did not deserve to be passed.

"It just goes against every shred of professional conscience I have got.

"I feel very, very sorry for students who have genuinely got Achieved, especially those who are close to the Merit boundary, because they are lumped in with students who, quite frankly, don't deserve to be there."

Mr English said the pressure on NZQA from Mr Maharey to avoid political controversy meant the authority was involved in "unofficially and secretly" re-marking exams.

Mr Maharey said the process did not involve any unofficial or secret re-marking. It was the most open and transparent exam process New Zealand had seen.

"We said to NZQA we do not want problems hidden at all. Everything is upfront and dealt with as quickly as we possibly can.

"We have gone through a lot of work this year to get the system right and we are dealing with things in an upfront and transparent way.

"That is how we are restoring credibility to the system."

NZQA acting chief executive Karen Sewell said it was hard to comment because she did not know which standard Mr English was referring to.

"I have been absolutely open and transparent about ...every occasion where we have stopped the marking, looked at the schedule, made adjustments and either started re-marking or clarified guidelines or advice for the markers."

NZQA has marked about a third of the exam papers and expects marking to be completed in a fortnight.