Before the news release about the future of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), Education minister Erica Stanford and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon were clear any change would not be tinkering, but they also said all options were on the table.
That is not quite the way it looks.
A discussion document out for consultation over the next six weeks does not suggest all options are on the table. Rather, that the main decisions on what to do have been made and anything which happens now will just be tweaking.
Those fed up with trying to understand the 20-year-old qualification with its plethora of achievement and unit standards and mix of internal and external assessment, and who wondered how well it was serving pupils and the wider community, may just be pleased something is being done.
The NCEA was originally brought in to address the lack of flexibility in the old School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and Bursary set-up and too much emphasis on external examinations, a system which set up many pupils to fail.
However, there have been longstanding concerns NCEA allowed too much flexibility, with some subjects not being covered fully by pupils; that the pick ‘n mix of standards made qualifications incoherent and incomprehensible; that there was inconsistency between external and internal assessments; and too many teenagers were avoiding external assessment.
The discussion document setting out the programme for change to the new government says pupils who are currently Year 9 in 2025 will continue to receive secondary school learning under the old curriculum and will be assessed under NCEA Levels 1, 2, and 3.
The discussion document also proposes working with industry to integrate Vocational Education and Training subjects into the senior qualifications, involving "using Industry Skills Boards (or others)" to help shape such learning, but the thinking on this does not seem well advanced.
This will also mean the current 11,000 skills and unit standards available under NCEA will be reduced. The plan is that the skills boards can take the best of these, and create new ones, to create packages "highly relevant to industry and workforce and provide pathways towards tertiary qualifications".
This may not suit all of the pupils who have previously relied on unit standards to gain qualifications and there are fears the loss of flexibility could go too far, disadvantaging some pupils.
While Ms Stanford has been working with a 13-strong professional advisory group comprising current and former principals described as having technical expertise and deep knowledge of the sector, the wider teaching fraternity might have expected to be involved before now.
The government’s relationship with the post- primary workforce is not in a great place, with its previous pay equity claim being scuppered by the recent law change, and a miserly pay proposal on the table.
Ms Stanford will need to take teachers with her in what looks likely to be a hectic few years where they will be coming to grips with a new curriculum while they are still assessing against the old one.
Already it seems the introduction of the refreshed curriculum is going to be slower than previously indicated, and there are concerns it will be hard for teachers to comment on the new assessment set-up without that work completed.
Nobody would doubt Ms Stanford’s passion and enthusiasm, and her ability to get things done, but there is not enough detailed information yet to give these changes an A grade.
