Set percentage of students to achieve scholarship

The Government has approved changes to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) scholarship system that will ensure a set percentage of students achieve a scholarship in most subjects.

Associate Education Minister David Benson-Pope said today Cabinet had endorsed all but one of 26 recommendations made by an expert panel convened to fix problems with the NCEA scholarship.

The panel was set up earlier this year after scholarship results varied widely between subjects and fewer scholarships were granted than expected.

Mr Benson-Pope said the review group's key recommendation was that scholarships be awarded to 2 to 3 per cent of the total number of students studying a subject at NCEA level three.

There was no such threshold previously.

"The recommended changes will require students to be ranked, and we have been assured that this is possible within a standards-based system providing the examination is structured appropriately," Mr Benson-Pope told reporters.

He said the Government had decided to retain a standards-based system -- rather than opt for a return to a marks-based system -- because that fitted with the rest of the NCEA.

He said an expert panel would oversee each year's scholarship.

It could make exceptions to the percentage of students attaining scholarship if exam results within a subject were deemed to be exceedingly poor, or if the small number of students taking the subject meant that everyone entering scholarship was virtually guaranteed success.

Mr Benson-Pope said the only recommendation not endorsed related to financial awards for scholarship.

Cabinet had deferred a decision on whether all students gaining a scholarship should receive money, he said.

- NZPA