Parents taking to NCEA

Parents familiar with the previous School Certificate system often find NCEA confusing, a local principal says.

Rotorua Lakes High School principal Bruce Walker said many parents failed to distinguish between the basic mathematics and English standards required for university entrance, and those needed for specialty courses like engineering.

His comments follow new survey findings indicating the majority of New Zealand parents now support NCEA, despite many struggling to understand the system.

The Council for Educational Research (CER) national survey, which is performed every three years, monitors what parents, teachers, principals, and school trustees think of NCEA.

While support from participating parents reached an all-time high of 54 per cent in the most recent 2012 survey, two-thirds said they were confused about literacy and numeracy achievement under NCEA.

The system was first introduced in 2002.

Mr Walker said parents thought their child should be doing mathematics and English.

However, Mr Walker said many students these days didn't need a job which required just "pure Maths and English".

In their case, once they had satisfied the basic entrance level requirements for a course, they should opt to do a subject that is more beneficial to their chosen career path.

Secondary Principals' Association president Tom Parsons said increased teacher workloads under NCEA - identified as a continuing problem for education staff in the survey - was largely due to the system's higher pass rate aims.

Sixty-nine per cent of teachers said they supported NCEA in the survey, compared to 95 per cent of principals.

Mr Parsons said it was possible to have "100 per cent of your kids" pass under NCEA.

But this required an "inordinate" amount of work from teachers.

"A question can quite rightly be asked by parents and stakeholders - why isn't my student up to the required standard?" he said.

Latest figures show 86.1 per cent of Bay of Plenty Year 12 students who sat NCEA level 2 last year passed. This was up from 76.3 per cent in 2008.

Nationally, the NCEA level 2 pass rate was 83.6 per cent last year, compared to 75.7 per cent four years earlier.

Mr Parsons also said initial problems with the system had largely been teased out.

"As a rule of thumb it is a very, very good system... [which] requires very, very good, hardworking staff," Mr Parsons said.