English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:624;Page:19109] 
3.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education 
: Does he agree with the view expressed in the PPTA report  
Teachers Talk About NCEA 
 that “The external moderation system which is the quality assurance process for internally assessed components of the qualification lacks credibility with the vast majority of teachers.” and “There were huge concerns about the quality and reliability of external assessment.”; if not why not? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
 on behalf of the  
Associate Minister of Education 
: While I agree that there is room for improvement I prefer to emphasise the views of 80 percent of participants who responded to this issue who said: “On balance … the new system of qualifications is working better than the old system of School Certificate Sixth Form Certificate and bursary.” 
Hon Bill English 
: What does the Minister say to the parents of the 100000 young New Zealanders who have only National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) results as a measure of their achievement at secondary school—parents who believed his assurances that everything was all right with NCEA and that suggestions of problems were nonsensical but who have found out today from the teachers of their children that even the teachers did not believe that the internal or external assessment was credible? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I would say two things to them. The first comes from the report: “On balance despite the continuing controversy about aspects of the qualification and despite the continued attempts of some people and groups to totally discredit it it can be said the implementation to this point has been successful thanks to that commitment of teachers and professional leaders.” I would also quote Allan Peachey who said: “A number of my colleagues have sought to keep norm referencing alive. I believe that history will judge them to have failed a critical test of leadership to the long-term disadvantage of students.” I suggest the member listen on that one issue only to Allan Peachey. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: What will the Minister say to the Northland girl who sat three external subjects—English statistics and geography—whose scripts have been lost by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority which as a result refused to accept that she ever sat the exams in the first place even though school staff confirm that she did; and given the appropriate information will he do something about this deplorable situation? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: There has been a history even going back to School Certificate of scripts that have been lost especially in the post. If the member gives me the details of this particular case privately I will follow it up and we will fix it. 
Metiria Turei 
: Does the Minister accept the report’s recommendation that operations grant funding be urgently increased to recognise the continuing financial impact of NCEA on schools or will he continue to support the creeping privatisation of the schooling sector where parents are forking out as much as $740 a year in school donations? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I think it is impossible to stop schools asking for and parents giving money for schools. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Is the Minister aware of cases in which teachers have used assessment tasks made available to them by the Qualifications Authority on its website only to have the tasks slammed by moderators because they do not adequately test against the standard and who does he think is getting it wrong—the authority which set the standard and often provides the task the teachers who assess the students or the moderators who check that the assessment is appropriate? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I would be happy to get the member a briefing about how the standards are set because I think he clearly misunderstands that. There have been some standards that have been updated. There have been some teachers who have not followed the updates well. It has been slightly uneven from school to school and that is something that is being looked at. 
Tariana Turia 
: What is being done to address the quality and reliability of the translation of exams and the marking of papers written in te reo Maori in external assessment? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: During the time of this Government with the help of that member and especially of Parekura Horomia there has been a lot done to ensure that students can study and be examined in a large number of subjects in te reo Maori. That is generally done very well but there have been a few odd hiccups. I must say that the results for some of those subjects are excellent. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister now telling the House that out of this report of the views of 100 teachers who teach NCEA all he is worried about is whether he can win an argument about not going back to School Certificate and is he completely dismissing the reported views of the teachers that neither the internal assessment nor the external assessment has credibility in the eyes of teachers; and when will he actually focus on what the students need fixed and stop covering his backside as an incompetent Minister? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It reminds me of the boy who got whipped in the ring. I make it clear that in my very first answer to the primary question I said “while I agree that there is room for improvement”. Those improvements will be made. 
Bernie Ogilvy 
: Is the Minister aware that there is nothing to compel teachers to follow the recommendations of moderators and adjust their marking accordingly and that the moderators’ views are often ignored when their assessment is way out of line with the achievement standards awarded by teachers; if so how can the moderation process have any credibility whatsoever in maintaining national standards? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I do not accept that because there is an ultimate weapon which I think has been threatened on one occasion of removing a school’s right to internally assess. 
Hon Bill English 
: If the Minister believes that there are no problems with the way that NCEA is marked and assessed what is his response to advice to me that level 2 English markers were given a phone call part-way through marking and told to “soften the standard” because not enough students were passing? There are a good number of very confused and bewildered teachers out there; what does that email make of his fine theory that this is all about absolute standards? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I make it clear again that there is room for improvement; it is not perfect. There has been a standard arrangement in examinations for at least the last 20 years— 
Hon Bill English 
: The Minister said it was fine and it is a shambles. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The member seems to be lacking in control of himself today. What has happened? What is wrong? For about the last 20 years part-way into the marking of examinations there have been communications from examiners to markers. That happened last year it happened the year before and I think it will always happen.