English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:625;Page:20362] 
5.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Did he make the following statement about New Zealand Scholarship in April 2003: “There will be no fixed numbers or proportions of students receiving the qualification. It depends on how many students meet the standard set in each subject.”; if so why did the lack of cross-subject comparability in Scholarship allegedly come as a surprise to him? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I did expect that there would be intersubject variation because the decision that Scholarship would be standards-based and that there would be no intersubject scaling was made by that member and his colleagues in 1998. However like many others I did not expect the extremes of variability that occurred. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why did the Minister ignore all the following warnings about problems with Scholarship: correspondence from the Education Scholarship Trust individual letters from a number of school principals questions in the House last year a select committee report tabled in this House that highlighted in 2003 exactly the problems that his recent review has picked up and also Professor Warwick Elley’s analysis of variability in the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) 2004 results; and why does he not just own up to the fact that he was arrogant and complacent about this exam and that that is what cheated our students? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I would not regard students as being cheated when a significant number who did not pass according to the criteria have as a result of the very generous approach of my colleague the Hon David Benson-Pope been given a significant amount of money anyway. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: When the Associate Minister claimed: “More work will be done to minimise the level of variance between subjects for those sitting scholarship exams in 2005.” exactly what sort of work was he referring to and how will it reduce variability of results? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is my understanding that work is going on to put the results within bands rather than having the extremes of variability that have occurred. 
Deborah Coddington 
: What more evidence or advice does the Minister need given that he now has the report showing the NCEA Scholarship to be a shambles to get him to honour his commitment to students which he made in this House on 10 February to scrap the $30 reassessment fee for each subject; will he now confirm to parents and students that that fee will be scrapped and that parents who have already paid will be reimbursed? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I think that anyone who has read the report will see that that is not the issue—and no. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister recall issuing a public statement saying that he first knew about problems with Scholarship results on 13 January 2005; and how does he reconcile that with the record of meetings in the report of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s internal review which makes it absolutely clear that on 15 December 2004 he had a meeting with the authority in which they discussed low achievement in a scholarship subject? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I have always made it clear that PE was an exception. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister now saying that all the statements he made—both inside the House and outside—about not knowing about Scholarship variability until 13 January were wrong and that in fact he was discussing this issue on 15 December 2004; and why do he and his fellow Minister insist on tawdry cover-ups and half-truths all the time instead of just owning up? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The discussions on the 13th were around overall pass rates not about variability. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What’s the difference? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The member asked what the difference is—that just shows how thick he is. 
Simon Power 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Are you going to allow the comment made by the Minister of Education at the conclusion of his answer? Because if you are we have a new standard in this House and that particular standard will be applied to questions asked as well as questions answered. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Well as good was given in that interchange. Comments were made on both sides that I could have ruled as being unacceptable but I could see that we were getting to the substance of it. But I will pull everyone up both questioner and answerer in future if that is what members wish.