English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:619;Page:15098] 
3.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Does he agree with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s statement that with regard to NCEA assessment practices at Cambridge High School “There is no evidence that the issues identified at the school by NZQA are happening at other schools.”; if not why not? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Acting Minister of Education) 
: 
 Yes because that is the advice I have received from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. This was an extreme case and it showed a distinct lack of professionalism. I am confident that the vast majority of New Zealand teachers operate in a very professional manner. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why can the Minister rely on statements made by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority when media reports today demonstrate that the authority was investigating evidence of exactly the same sorts of practices as those shown at Cambridge High School at another school probably at the time that the authority made that statement? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: My understanding is that—and I imagine the member is referring to a particular school reported in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 which named it as Hauraki Plains College—the situation at the school as reported in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 is an example of how schools should deal with the problems. As soon as the school became aware of the potentially inadequate assessment activities it put student results on hold it identified problems with its policy and modified the policy and it asked the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to evaluate and confirm the changes made in the policy. 
Dr Ashraf Choudhary 
: Why is the National Certificate of Educational Achievement NCEA) a better system for the student? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The NCEA gives students teachers and employers a very detailed picture of how students are performing in each subject unlike the old School Certificate system which automatically consigned 50 percent of the students to failure and 50 percent to success regardless of their actual standard of work. When students achieve in an area of learning we will now know exactly what skills they possess not just that they did better or worse than the average. For instance a builder looking for an apprentice will see whether a student can actually do geometry. That level of detail was not possible under School Certificate which just gave an overall mark. 
Jim Peters 
: Is not the issue with regard to current NCEA practices one that was created after 1999 by the Ministry of Education amalgamating achievement and unit standards—two totally different historical achievement strands in secondary education—and when will the Minister move to reform the practices that are inherent in the current NCEA? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The member who asked that question is an expert in this area and knows the history. He has correctly described some of what has gone on. However I say to that member that today we have a standards-based system that is a distinct improvement on a mere ranking system and as the principals themselves say the system meets their needs and provides better motivation for academic success than in the past. As with the implementation of any system of this size there will be bedding-down problems. Those problems will be sorted out and we will be left with a better system. The issue is about improving the system not changing it entirely. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Will the Minister conduct a nationwide review of NCEA procedures and policies as requested more than 2 months ago by more than 20 State school principals who were so desperate and so concerned that they took out a newspaper advertisement about the NCEA’s credibility; if not why is he just arrogantly ignoring the very people who are responsible for educating young New Zealanders? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can really do better than to take the words of the Principals Council which recently noted that—and I will paraphrase what it had to say—although there will be problems we should always be on the look-out for situations and deal with them when they arise but rather than throw the baby out with the bath water we should use examples like Cambridge High School to allow us to get proper processes in all schools. That is the best approach—to look at the system when issues like that arise to learn from them and to move on in a good system. 
Larry Baldock 
: Is the Minister at all disturbed that it took a letter from a student to an education magazine to raise concerns about Cambridge High School’s assessment practices when the school has produced artificially high results over the last 2 years; if so will he finally ask some hard questions of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority—an organisation that has bungled the implementation of the NCEA from the very beginning? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I can assure the member that the Minister of Education always asks hard questions of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. However we are dealing here with a situation where a school is regularly reviewed. In the case of Cambridge High School it appears that that school hid some of the activities that were going on in the school. As soon as those activities became apparent to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority—not through a letter but through other means—it went back to the school which is now under the control of two statutory managers. It cannot be more controlled than that. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister tell me how the New Zealand Qualifications Authority could have investigated assessment practices at Hauraki Plains College when the activity workbooks and assessment workbooks in question are in the box I have here? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As a former university lecturer I always approve of people using visual aids to illustrate their point so I thank the member for that. [ 
Interruption 
] It is an aspect that the member himself states has disappeared. All I can say to the member is that I am assured by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority that this matter was dealt with appropriately. The authority was invited into the school and has dealt with the matter in the appropriate fashion. 
Hon Bill English 
: Will the Minister go back to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority and ask it how it investigated assessment practices at Hauraki Plains College when the scripts that I have here show many students gave exactly the same answers to questions show 6th form students earned 3 credits in a matter of 3 or 4 days and show students probably signed each other’s assessments rather than teachers doing that? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I assure the member that of course every claim made by him and with evidence to support it will be investigated thoroughly by myself and I will ensure that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority follows up on those issues thoroughly. But I say the system of a standards-based assessment is vastly better than a ranking system such as School Certificate which allowed so many National Party people to get through their qualifications. 
Hon Bill English 
: What are the thousands of students parents and teachers to make of statements by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority in the  
New Zealand Herald  
today that it has investigated the problems at Hauraki Plains College when the authority could not have seen the evidence of bad assessment practice because that was not available to it? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I take the claims of the member seriously. I am sure he is an honourable member. If he has those claims to make and evidence to back them up then I am always willing to look at the issues raised by him.