Chadwick Steve: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Chadwick Steve: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:619;Page:15311] 
2.  
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Further to oral question No. 7 on 1 September has he received any further evidence of alleged National Certificate of Educational Achievement credit fraud at Hauraki Plains College; if not what action is he taking to resolve the matter? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 No. New Zealand Qualifications Authority relationship managers have visited the school and found that while there was a problem with the work of one short-term reliever those problems had been identified and resolved long before the stolen box of so-called evidence was presented in this House. The school has acted entirely appropriately and I have no hesitation in commending it for its efforts. From a telephone call made by Bill English last Friday the school is under the impression that it his intention to issue a public apology. I call on him to do that forthwith. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Has the Minister received any evidence to substantiate claims of widespread National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)# credit fraud; if so what steps has he taken to resolve that matter? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I have seen allegations from the Hon Bill English and Don Brash in that area. I prefer the opinions of Mrs M Bendall the principal of Epsom Girls Grammar School Mr B Haque the principal of Pakuranga College Mr G Laurenson the principal of Otahuhu College Mrs Ann Mildenhall the principal of Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland Mr W Peat the headmaster of St Kentigern College and Mrs Linda Reid the principal of St Cuthbert’s College who have called on people to stop making cheap shots and to support a vastly superior system. 
Simon Power 
: Will the Minister just confirm that there was evidence of bad assessment practices that his Associate Minister the Hon Steve Maharey admitted to this House on 26 August that there had been “potentially inadequate assessment activities” at the school that it had “identified problems with its policy” and that a qualified New Zealand Qualifications Authority moderator and assessor described marked assessments as not meeting the national standard; will he just admit those three facts? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I think the important point is that the material in the box was not used for final assessments. I agree with the assessor. If they had been used they would not have been good enough but they were not used. That school had a leader who sorted out a problem. It is a pity the Tories do not have one. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Is it true that the report that the Minister talked about in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 this morning by principals from schools as socially and economically diverse as Otahuhu College on the one hand and St Kentigern College and Epsom Girls Grammar School on the other sang the praises of the NCEA and can he understand why Bill English continues to bag an assessment system devised by the former National Government? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The first part of the question is in order but not the second part. The Minister can comment on the first part. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: During the time that I have been Minister there has been widespread and growing support for the NCEA—a system that I inherited. I deferred its introduction for a year because it had not been properly prepared by my predecessor. The person whom I would like to thank for doing a lot of the work some time ago that went towards the system—and it is a very good system—is Dr Lockwood Smith. I thank him for that work and for his ongoing support for this very good system.