4. Earthquake Kaikōura—Secondary School ExamsCHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of EducationEarthquake Kaikōura—Secondary School Exams4. CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Will the exam papers completed by students sitting cancelled scholarship exams on Monday be marked as NZQA advised on Twitter; if so how will those results be fairly compared with students who will have to sit a different exam at a later date?Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development) on behalf of the Minister of Education: I am advised that as per the Minister's answer in the House yesterday she is awaiting advice on how this technical process will work. I understand this advice is imminent but I can advise that firstly the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) will use a common marking schedule across both exams and secondly every year a benchmarking process is used to ensure that exams are equivalent to previous years.Chris Hipkins: Why is she willing to have students sitting scholarship exams sit different tests on different days for the same subjects but will not allow those students whose NCEA exams were disrupted by earthquakes the same opportunity?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Scholarship exams are different because they are not covered by the emergency-derived grade process. Two thousand three hundred and sixteen students were due to sit the scholarship exams and 585 of those were in affected regions and would have been unable to secure a scholarship grade had the exam gone ahead. NZQA is preparing a comparable exam for students who were not able to undertake the scholarship history exam. Arrangements are expected to be finalised and advised to schools by the end of today.Chris Hipkins: If it is possible to mark different scholarship exam papers for the same subject using a common marking schedule as NZQA has claimed and the Minister has claimed in her answer why is it not possible to do the same for NCEA exams?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I thought I had just answered that. Scholarship exams are different in that there is no derived marking process. So if you do not sit the exam you have no opportunity to get a scholarship.Chris Hipkins: Does she accept that a magnitude 7.5 earthquake the night before an exam students being evacuated from their homes due to a tsunami warning followed by rolling aftershocks during the exam can have an impact on those students' ability to demonstrate their true abilities in that exam?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: There is an established process for dealing with such incidences as those. This policy is in place to ensure that students are not disadvantaged. An emergency-derived grade process applies where an event occurs that affects a significant number of students that is beyond their control. A school liaises with the affected students and applies to NZQA on its behalf for an emergency-derived grade. Derived grades are based on standards-specific evidence as defined by NZQA rules and guidelines. Students can achieve Merit and Excellence through this process and have done so.Chris Hipkins: Will those students who went ahead and sat their NCEA exams still be able to apply for an emergency-derived grade?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I do not have that information and I am not prepared to discuss on a hypothetical basis.Chris Hipkins: Will she now ensure that all students who sat NCEA exams on Monday this week and feel that they were disadvantaged by lack of sleep worry about their friends or relatives aftershocks during the exams or who were unable to sit their exams because the examination venue was closed will have the opportunity to sit or resit as soon as possible after the currently scheduled exams conclude; if not why not?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I think there are two different things. On the first point I am unable on behalf of the Minister to make that commitment; that would be wrong. On the second there is a process where those students can apply for that derived grade process and the scholarship exam was cancelled because there is not a derived grade process.