English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:624;Page:18957] 
3.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education 
: Has the Government initiated an inquiry into NCEA results; if so when was the decision to undertake that inquiry made? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
 on behalf of the 
 Associate Minister of Education 
: Yes on 15 February. 
Hon Bill English 
: How does the Minister reconcile the following two public statements: firstly his confirmation on Radio New Zealand on 16 February that it was “only scholarship under the microscope”—contrary to the answer he just gave—and secondly his telling the  
New Zealand Herald  
on 4 March that he had not issued a statement about the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) inquiry because “it was already covered by the States Services Commission inquiry”? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I do that quite easily. As was indicated the State Services Commission inquiry will determine whether reasons for variability in some standards were not for valid educational reasons—that is were they the result of deficiencies in the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s systems? That was at the beginning of the inquiry. It was always covered. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Would the Associate Minister agree with the statement last week by an experienced maths teacher who wrote: “It is not the teachers and the pupils who have varied; it is the hurdle height.”; and will he give parents students and employers a guarantee that steps now being taken will stabilise these unacceptable variations in the “hurdle height”? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: On the matter of unacceptable variations the answer is yes. 
Deborah Coddington 
: How much importance if any did the Minister’s Government place on the repeated warnings about the NCEA scholarship given by the New Zealand Education and Scholarship Trust; and now that its predictions have come true why does he not just give scholarship exams back to the trust to run? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I have a copy of the correspondence from John Graham to the Ministry of Education in 2002 and the trust does indicate a fundamental feeling that a standards-based approach is not the right approach. It has always been honest about that unlike some other people. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm the answer he just gave to the House that the decision to have an official inquiry into NCEA was made on 15 February; if that is true how does he explain the following exchange on Radio New Zealand—presenter: “So it’s only scholarship under the microscope?”; David Benson-Pope: “That’s right.”? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Again I can confirm that very easily. On 15 February the Associate Minister wrote to the State Services Commissioner asking him to review the effectiveness of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority in carrying out its functions relating to the school qualifications system. The rest of the NCEA might not have been under a microscope but it was certainly within the scope of that inquiry. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that the person who has been appointed as an independent adviser to the inquiry into NCEA is Dr Alan Barker and is this the same Dr Alan Barker who spent 7 years working in the New Zealand Qualifications Authority between 1992 and 1999 as manager of planning and strategy and who is acknowledged as one of the two architects of NCEA; and why should parents students and teachers have any faith in an inquiry run by the person who designed the system? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I fear there might be two Dr Alan Barkers. The Alan Barker who has been appointed worked for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority from 1990 until 1997 after which the National Party issued the green paper on NCEA. He was not there at that time. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why did the Minister tell Radio New Zealand on 16 February that only scholarship was under the microscope when he has just told the House he had apparently decided the day before that there would be an inquiry into NCEA and why should the public or this House believe a word he says about this issue? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: To answer the second question first I am not a Tory; and to answer the first question there is a difference between a microscope and a wide-angle lens and the Minister has both. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the Minister please address the question. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I look at things both with microscopes and with wide-angle lenses in order to focus on appropriate issues and I do not mislead people because I am not a Tory. 
Hon Bill English 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The question was quite direct and it was to ask the Minister why he told Radio New Zealand that only scholarship was under the microscope when he had already decided—apparently the day before—that there would be an inquiry into NCEA. I have asked him why he told Radio New Zealand that only scholarship was under the microscope. That was a direct question and it deserves a direct answer particularly given the contradictory statement that he has made in answers to this House. That is why the matter is important. The House has to decide on the veracity of what is being said here alongside what was said to the public on Radio New Zealand. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The Minister addressed the question. The member may not like the answer but the question was addressed and it was relevant to the question that was asked. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. With regard to the Minister’s answer he does have to answer in line with the Standing Orders. I would ask you—perhaps not now but later—to just look at the  
Hansard 
 from today and consider how that last answer lined up with Standing Order 370(2)(c). I think that it was slightly provocative and I am sure it was not the sort of style that you would want to see from this point on. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I thank the member for his assistance. I will look at the matter.