Ogilvy Bernie: General Debate 
Ogilvy Bernie: General Debate 
[Volume:625;Page:20482] 
BERNIE OGILVY (United Future) 
: 
 I want to bring the whole matter of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) exam programme to the attention of the House. We in United Future have always held a constructive view on the promulgation and the beginning of NCEA. Many of the Opposition parties and politicians myself included have publicised the problems but the solutions have been very slow to emerge and we are all conscious of that. I want to address that today. 
We in United Future have a track record of seeking to improve the NCEA programmes. On arrival in this House in late 2002 I sought a select committee inquiry into the implementation of the NCEA system thinking rightly at that stage that that would probably put the matter back on track. But in reality it did not and we are here today hearing about it again. In the near future we will hear much more about how the system has not got on track but has in fact lost track in certain areas. United Future is still asking for improvements to take place. While we await reports—and we all know that official reports are due on this—I thought I might take the opportunity today to note one or two recommendations that United Future has with regard to this issue. 
Our No. 1 recommendation is that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority engage in a very productive public education campaign to ensure that parents students and employers can actually understand the NCEA programme. When listening to the radio—last Monday I think it was—I heard a discussion taking place on a talkback show. Some others may have heard it. In reality it was a phone-in from a girl who was looking for a job and she was about to go into an interview with a prospective employer. She was asked by the radio host: “While you’re there why don’t you ask the employer whether he understands anything about your NCEA results?” She did ring back and she said that the employer never asked for her script the reason being that he—I am assuming it was a “he”—could not and would not know how to read or understand the whole thing. 
So the first thing we would recommend—as well as ensuring we took notice of what the official report said—is that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority ensure that a public education campaign is carried out to ensure that parents and employers know all about the NCEA. Students seem to know something about it but we would like the employers to know something about it. Why would we want to make that a No. 1 recommendation? Simply because we think the programme has failed to get across the basic concept of what it stands for. 
Our second recommendation is that we return the New Zealand education system in the last year prior to university to a scholarship exam system along the lines of the previous format. The standards-based assessment programme that NCEA is based on does not allow top students to be identified in the easiest and clearest of manners. It certainly focuses on individual achievement but it does not do the next step which precedes certainly higher learning in a university. So we think very strongly that a return to a scholarship exam which is norm-referenced and therefore can be ranked so that best students can be assessed correctly is a good recommendation and a step forward for the future of New Zealand. 
Right now there are students who are not clear at all about what to aim for and where to go. Employers are at sixes and sevens and sadly parents have no idea of what is going on. They are asking for and require a more certain programme. We believe that this recommendation would bring certainty back to the system. 
We also believe there should be a good basis on which to legitimise other forms and types of examinations in this nation and our third recommendation is that we do so.