Duncan Helen: National Certificate in Educational Achievement Moratorium Bill — First Reading 
Duncan Helen: National Certificate in Educational Achievement Moratorium Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:606;Page:4050] 
HELEN DUNCAN (NZ Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in the first reading of this member’s bill. The Government fundamentally opposes the bill. We are committed to the ongoing implementation and development of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and I do not expect that to come as a surprise to anybody here in the House. I expect that the National Party will also be opposed to this given that NCEA was developed by National in Government and in fact would have been introduced a year earlier had it continued to be the Government. We believe that to impose a moratorium would be to waste the time and the energy of teachers students and schools as well as the money of the taxpayers of New Zealand. We actually do not need a moratorium. NCEA is here to stay. Level 1 has been successfully implemented and that was one of the good things that we noticed with the exams: the level of problems with the exams was I think less than we normally have had with School Certificate. There have always been problems with the exam system but in fact things went remarkably smoothly. Given the level of discussion beforehand it was amazing how little complaint there actually was about the conduct of the exams. 
NCEA replaces an outdated qualifications system with a system that is flexible has clearly defined standards and recognises what the students in our secondary schools can do rather than what they cannot do. I do not think anybody in this House can get up and credibly argue for the retention of a School Certificate system that automatically failed 50 percent of students. I cannot see that anybody can argue that that is a system that is good for our students’ self-esteem self-worth or even their likelihood of employment or being able to carry on to tertiary education. NCEA is the product of over 15 years of deliberation by the profession employers and politicians and as I said before it was developed by the previous Government which had intended to introduce it in 2001. It is interesting that educational professionals by and large are still absolutely committed to NCEA in principle even though they complained about the problems there were with implementation. 
I think it is time for ACT to move on and be positive about the opportunities that NCEA offers. It was really interesting on the select committee that when we had just settled on having the inquiry and had not even seen the submissions Deborah Coddington as a new member came along replacing Donna Awatere Huata and said that ACT would be putting in a minority report. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Not a chance! 
HELEN DUNCAN 
: We said it was usual to wait until— 
Deborah Coddington 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am a new member and I seek your guidance on this but if the member is reporting something I said to the select committee that is incorrect is that acceptable? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: It is not a point of order but I will ask the member who has the floor to come back to the bill please. 
HELEN DUNCAN 
: The point that I— 
Dail Jones 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am disappointed Mr Speaker that while Deborah Coddington was trying to raise her point of order Helen Duncan stayed on her feet throughout in a mark of disrespect to you. I ask that in future you just keep an eye on that because I believe it is out of order. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Thank you Mr Jones. I take that on board. 
HELEN DUNCAN 
: As I said the whole point is that it is usual to get the submissions in listen to them and then make a decision about whether a minority report is needed. It did indicate to us that the mind of the ACT party was made up before the inquiry had even got under way. But in fact I do hope that the ACT party will for the good of the students of New Zealand support the continuation of NCEA. There were some problems with its introduction but that is not unusual. Some of us in our investigation looked back at what had happened when School Certificate was first introduced and the problems there were then. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: We can’t look back that far. We weren’t even born then. 
HELEN DUNCAN 
: We looked back at evidence about it. We know also that in the education system whenever there is change there is upheaval because teaching is inherently a stressful occupation and when we add in change particularly the level of change that came with NCEA of course it puts stress on the system and on the people involved in it. Because there was last year a considerable amount of industrial unrest that added to the stress. But we have as a Government committed resources to assist with the ongoing implementation of NCEA. The Government has looked carefully at the recommendations that came from the select committee and is indeed committed to ensuring that there is a smoother transition to the new NCEA system in the next 2 years. 
More training for levels 2 and 3 has been made available this year and will be made available next year. We will review NCEA before the end of 2005 and the Government will listen to the views of education stakeholders at that time. But this bill provides a moratorium of 2 years and I cannot see that this will be of any use to anyone. It is simply going to delay the implementation and cause more stress. It would not affect the continuation of NCEA for fifth form students but simply put a hold on things and stop the smooth progression. 
As I said the select committee listened very carefully to the submissions from a large number of people who were involved. t was really interesting that although they saw problems with the implementation process they had no quarrel with the actual system. In fact every single submitter was clear that the NCEA was an improvement on the system that was there before; that it was going to be better for education and for students and they commended the system to the Education and Science Committee. Yes there were problems with resourcing training communication with the ministry—all those sorts of things. I am not trying to play down the issues that were very rightfully raised with us on the inquiry into the implementation of the NCEA but in spite of that the net result was that everybody said: “It is a good system. It just needs to have the implementation improved.” 
As I said the select committee made some recommendations to the Government and we as a Government are taking them to heart. But the committee also wrote in its report: “It is to be noted that the three key education stakeholders affirm their belief in the NCEA and ask only that lessons are learned from its implementation in 2002 and that the requisite resourcing is provided for its ongoing development and delivery.” That is the final conclusion of the report from the select committee inquiry into the NCEA. Therefore I ask members to listen to that and to vote against this bill. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: The remaining speeches are 5 minutes.