Teachers say NCEA could do better

Two-thirds of secondary school teachers are either unhappy or ambivalent about the National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA), a new survey shows.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Debbie Te Whaiti said that according to the latest PPTA membership survey, carried out over the past three months, about a third of teachers were happy with the NCEA.

A third were unhappy, and the rest were best described as "ambivalent".

At its annual conference yesterday the PPTA released a paper titled "NCEA: The work continues".

The PPTA was unhappy with the amount of time and money given to NCEA training for teachers, said the paper's authors.

"The amount of money per school was considerably less than we had sought; we had asked for two full days, as in previous years, not two half-days," they said.

Schools should have been required to carry out the training before receiving the money, otherwise some might use it for other purposes, the PPTA said.

"Early indications are ... PPTA's predictions have been borne out. There appear to be many teachers who were completely unaware that this money was made available."

The paper's authors listed a number of design problems with the NCEA system.

Several issues revolved around the 80-credit requirement for each NCEA national certificate.

The 80-credit minimum was de-motivating for students, the authors said. Weak students might be discouraged by a fear of not reaching the 80 credits, while evidence showed stronger students were setting their goal at the minimum of 80 and no more.

"[There is] growing evidence that the 80-credit certificates have led to some 'credit shopping' by students ... where they search for standards that deliver the most credits for the least effort."

- NZPA