Improving NCEA

Alasdair Thompson, the chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) has some suggested improvements to NCEA. They include:

* The standards moderation process over time and between schools must be improved to establish the highest level of statistical precision. Schools must not be permitted to choose which students’ work is submitted for moderation assessment.

* Four grades of achievement – not achieved, achieved, merit, and excellent – are not enough. Ten levels of achievement are required.

* A three-hour compulsory exam in English and mathematics should be introduced, perhaps in year 12, to ensure tertiary students have proven levels of competence.

* Specific periods for each achievement standard in external exams should be set

* Some subject areas should be consolidated into larger achievement standards to ensure they are not trivialised.

I can’t see anything objectionable there.