English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:625;Page:20319] 
11.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education 
: Have final 2004 NCEA results been made available to candidates in accordance with the notification on the NZQA website that those results would be made available in April? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
 on behalf of the 
 Associate Minister of Education 
: Yes. 
Hon Bill English 
: How can the Minister claim that final National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) results have been made available to candidates when the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has just edited its website to state that final results will be available in May-June which will be at least some 6 weeks late; and can he explain why at the end of all this shambles the results for students are 6 weeks late? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am advised that the students’ results the member is talking about were made available in April. Students’ results were available on the website in April— 
Hon Bill English 
: Interim results. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No the final results were made available in April I am advised. [ 
Interruption 
] I want to repeat that point; I know some people are a little slow. Final results were made available on the website in April. There is a pile of other bits of information about school results national results and a number of other things that will be made available over the next couple of months. We do not need to have it on the website that something is to be made available in April now that it is May and it has already been made available. 
Metiria Turei 
: Can the Minister advise how the Correspondence School NCEA students who have just received their results will use those results in the development of their career plans given today’s sacking of two careers teachers nine deans and 19 regional advisers from the Correspondence School—arising out of chronic underfunding by this Government and irresponsible restructuring by the school’s board? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: At least two or three of those facts are incorrect. 
Deborah Coddington 
: In light of the Minister’s answer to the Hon Bill English when will he honour the commitment he made to parents in saying they would be able to compare schools’ NCEA results because they would be published on the website in April—not in May-June—or is he not publishing them because they would confuse parents even more? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: That is not a matter of candidates’ results. [ 
Interruption 
] Well the question was about candidates’ results. But I can inform the member that I am advised that the inter-school comparisons will be made available next week. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister aware that six Official Information Act requests regarding NCEA Scholarship have been completely ignored by himself and by the Ministry of Education since they were lodged in early February; and when will he start to cooperate with the Office of the Ombudsmen which is investigating the reasons why he and the other education Minister have breached that Act by withholding information that should have been available to the public at least 6 weeks ago? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: What this member is trying to do is to get the full information together so that it can be presented in a balanced manner even if the member who is asking for it is not. 
Hon Bill English 
: Will he give an undertaking to the House now that he will cooperate fully with the investigation of the Office of the Ombudsmen into why he and the Associate Minister of Education have breached the Official Information Act or alternatively will he just respond to the Official Information Act requests as the law required him to do 6 weeks ago? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I always cooperate with the ombudsmen. 
Deborah Coddington 
: I seek leave to table an answer given to a parliamentary question that I put to the Hon David Benson-Pope in which he stated that full results of NCEA between schools would be published on the website in April. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection. It will not be tabled. 
Hon Bill English 
: I seek leave to table the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website page that states that when the results are finalised they go on the students’ records of learning posted out and online in May-June. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.