Matthew Hooton: One of the guilty
Matthew Hooton confesses to being one of the guilty. Yes he helped write and promote the forerunner to the NCEA, and concludes that in hindsight they were too ambitious, they tried to be too pure.
Everyone gave the new system a fair go. Unions, employers, teachers, principals, school trustees and both our main political parties supported it. Teachers devoted unbelievable amounts of time to its development, often without pay. Over 17 years, parliament has happily appropriated more than $600 million of taxpayers’ money to NZQA to try to make it work. Education ministers representing a Who’s Who of our top politicians – Lange, Phil Goff, Lockwood Smith, Wyatt Creech, Nick Smith, Trevor Mallard and Steve Maharey – all gave it their best shot.
In retrospect, the National ministers of the 1990s were right to keep delaying NCEA and Mallard was wrong to finally press go. After all the time, money and commitment, the PPTA has found that only a third of secondary teachers are happy with the new system. The Ministry of Education says students find the system demotivating, and believe it fails to adequately recognise achievement or provide them with enough information on their learning and performance. The Council for Educational Research has found barely a third of parents have confidence in NCEA.
It may well be true, as Maharey argues, that all these teachers, students and parents are wrong, but, with qualifications, perception truly is reality. What does it matter that some extreme left-wing theorist says NCEA is utopia, when teachers, students, parents and employers disagree?
This is a crisis in our school system and the government’s response so far is unconvincing. After $600m and 17 years, it’s not credible to say further tweaking of NCEA will satisfy the majority, and reverse the rush to alternatives.
The government could make it illegal for state-school students to sit international alternatives, and nothing can be ruled out from the regime that gave us the retrospective pledge-card legislation. But unless it is prepared to take that bold step, the government has to fast accept that the dreams of the ’80s and ’90s were unrealistic and the system has failed.
Maharey is under a lot of stress right now, personally and from the hospital passes he has received from Mallard. After a decent Easter break, he needs to commit to working with international partners – perhaps Australian state governments – to have a credible qualifications system ready for nationwide implementation before the start of the next school year.
It’s not impossible. It starts with a mea culpa, and that isn’t so hard.