Hipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 09 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9513. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Is she satisfied that students completing NCEA qualifications have the basic functional literacy and numeracy skills they will require for further study or employment?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Yes.Chris Hipkins: Was the recent Tertiary Education Commission report which found that up to half the students meeting National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) literacy and numeracy requirements are not functionally literate or numerate based on a student sample who had predominantly attained the literacy and numeracy requirements for NCEA under the new rules?Hon HEKIA PARATA: My understanding is no because the new rules were implemented in 2012 and therefore the results of those new rules were not taken into account by the Tertiary Education Commission report which was based prior to the introduction of those. So when you say “recent” although it was published in December last year it used data from 2012.Chris Hipkins: In light of that answer why does the report specifically state that the vast majority of students within the sample completed their NCEA literacy and numeracy requirement under the new rules?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I cannot speak to that because I am not at the Tertiary Education Commission and I did not write the report but given that the strengthening of the literacy and numeracy requirements and the increasing of the credits from eight to 10 became compulsorily implemented from 2013 it is by definition impossible for a 2012 report to use those results.Chris Hipkins: Was the report wrong when it stated that under the new rules it is possible to obtain the 10 achievement standard credits required to meet the literacy requirement for NCEA by completing standards where “the focus … is varied and there is not necessarily any direct assessment of students’ literacy and numeracy skills”?Hon HEKIA PARATA: No the report is not wrong in that literacy can be assessed in subjects other than English and that the quality assurance of those assessments is overseen by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. I stand by its process as opposed to an incidental report from the Tertiary Education Commission.Chris Hipkins: So how can parents employers and anybody else be confident that students who obtain NCEA have basic functional literacy and numeracy when it is possible to meet the literacy and numeracy requirements without ever having their literacy and numeracy actually assessed?Hon HEKIA PARATA: That is not what I said. Literacy is assessed but it is not assessed only in English. It is assessed in a range of subjects whether it is physical education whether it is science or whether it is maths. Literacy is required across all of those subjects and assessments occur in all of those subjects. As to the second part of your question which is how parents and employers can have confidence they can have confidence because a number of reports have been published on the quality of NCEA. They include the 2012 report by the Auditor-General the 2013 report by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research and the 2014 report by an independent panel of academics principals and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. I am happy to table for the member’s ease of reference references to all of those reports which are publicly available.Chris Hipkins: Can a student meet all of the literacy requirements for NCEA solely from studying physical education?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I am not absolutely sure about that but I can—Chris Hipkins: Yes. The answer is yes.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —get that report. Well the member is asking questions that are redundant.Chris Hipkins: When employers are saying that students with NCEA do not necessarily have the literacy and numeracy skills they need when Business New Zealand is saying it when universities and polytechnics are saying it and when even school principals are saying it why will she not take action to review the system to ensure those getting NCEA actually have functional literacy and numeracy or is she worried that doing so means the Government will not hit its 85 percent target?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I can point to specific reports that are in the public domain that attest to the robustness of our NCEA. The member using general references to general people who may or may not have a view does not stack up against the robustness—Chris Hipkins: Pretty specific study.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Yes the member is referring to one principal and there are a few but what the New Zealand Council for Educational Research said in its report of 2013 was that 95 percent of all principals are confident in the NCEA. It would be helpful if the member actually shared that confidence in our national qualification system.