The Education Review Office (ERO) has deemed NCEA Level 1, New Zealand’s foundational high school qualification, as “not a fair or reliable” measure of students’ knowledge and skills, sparking calls for significant reform.
A recent ERO report highlights issues such as inconsistencies in workload and difficulty across subjects, unreliable credit values, and a lack of motivation for students to achieve or continue studying.
While designed to be manageable, NCEA Level 1 has failed to prepare many students adequately for higher levels, with 71% of school leaders reporting that it doesn’t provide the necessary knowledge for NCEA Level 2.
Employers and parents also expressed concerns, with seven in ten employers finding it an unreliable indicator of skills and nine in ten questioning its reflection of work ethic. ERO suggests potential reforms, including rethinking the qualification’s role, reducing variability, and ensuring students are engaged year-round.
The rollout of a revised NCEA Level 1 in 2024 has been widely criticised, with the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) calling it a “shambles.” Teachers reported delays in resources, inadequate guidance, and overwhelming workloads, leaving subject associations to fill the gaps with limited support. Despite high hopes for a simpler, more accessible structure and greater inclusivity, the implementation has left students and educators frustrated.
Image credit: Giuilia Squillace
NCEA never made sense. It is a degraded form of the degraded form of the old School Certificate which in its original form was a sure assessment of ability. TPTB began changing English SC in 1973 or so to ensure more passes from 15 year olds – larger print, shorter comprehension paragraphs, simpler language, multi choice questions, but it still wasn’t enough hence NCEA, with enormous amounts of paperwork and testing and retesting, and still not enough passes. A lot of the problems go straight back to the abandonment of teaching to read and write via phonics and the introduction of ‘new maths’ both which should have been dumped ten years after introduction when failures became very apparent.
The ERO has been around for YEARS, and is just now making this announcement?
NCEA / NZQA are dysfunctional, money-wasting entities.
Remember a few years ago when top-level students from poorer backgrounds had thaie scores deliberately lowered by both entities?
Those less well off were deliberately kept out of University because of the corrupt system that only wanted the kids from ‘well-connected families’ attend Uni, thus maintaining the out-dated, colonial provincial and Masonic ‘Social Order & Caste’ profiles.
This is why we home-schooled, and our children entered Uni without NCEA / NZQA ‘qualifications’ as adult students.
All have graduated with honours with degreesin STEM-related fields.
Don’t rely on government for education qualifications that are pre-University; the Primary, Middle School and High Schools should adopt the system used in Canada, the U.S. and parts of Europe.
AND- in the event of subject failures, there should be additional chances to re-test.
Most students who fail initially come away with great scores the second time around.
Those leaving school at 16 should receive a High School certificate.
Those leaving High School at year 13 should receive a High School Diploma.
Those graduating University receive Degrees, irrespective of the time there.
Just like our healthcare system its totally fucked. NCEA is a joke, the curriculum is a joke and as for NZQA, also a joke. Our extremely bright child want is to move elsewhere in the world so they have access to good education. Was extremely upset to find out some kids in Singapore and Malaysia, she spoke to on line knew more about maths at the same age than she did. She’s being doing her own study to catch up because its not being taught in no hoper land, aka New Zealand. Why too, are the Cambridge standards not more widely available in colleges? This would help compensate for a measure of the incompetence.
Home School.
Do what the government brow beats you with
We are one
Comrade