Greens Warn NCEA Changes Will Fail Students
The Greens say National’s planned overhaul of NCEA risks dragging New Zealand backwards — replacing flexible modern learning with rigid standardised assessment that could leave thousands more students disengaged, excluded and without qualifications.
The National Party’s decision to scrap NCEA entirely guarantees many thousands of children will leave school with no qualification, no love of learning, and no preparation for a complex and fast-changing world, the Green Party says.
“One thing is clear from the announcement today by Christopher Luxon and Erica Stanford, they want more students to fail rather than more students to succeed.
“Education is about encouraging curiosity and nurturing our future generation’s love of learning. NCEA is a world class qualification, one that is already internationally benchmarked. New Zealand students are readily accepted into top universities overseas with NCEA,” says Lawrence Xu-Nan, Green Party spokesperson for education.
The fear is more students will be left behind
“New Zealand has seen the harm of standardising assessment, where some students are left further behind – especially Māori, Pasifica, disabled and neurodivergent, and rural students. The Minister herself has confirmed that students could leave school without a qualification.
“The real world does not exist in neat little five subject boxes. Such siloed thinking will be more detrimental for our students’ learning than ever before. However, this Government is addicted to change and is determined to bring back outdated standardised assessments that do not prepare our students for the future.
The Government is rewriting the system without a roadmap
“There is also no confirmation on university entrance requirements, nor the relevant curricula that would support the qualification. This is another example of this Government’s cart-before-the-horse approach.
“The Green Party is committed to halting the disastrous curriculum and qualification changes until there has been meaningful consultation with the communities, including teachers and principals, parents, and students to ensure that any change is centred on the needs and aspiration of individual students,” says Xu-Nan.
NCEA scrapped! Up until recently our NZ educated were sought after to fill jobs overseas. So why mutilate something that has done us proud and replace it with an experiment that needs more work and more fine tuning? Any significant changes needed to be made well before now! All this will do is muddy the waters yet again so why upset the apple cart now? Why? Arrogance, and their lack of love for our country and its people. This CoC is hell bent on leaving an absolute mess for the incumbent govt. to repair. Nothing they do is done with meaningful consultation or with transparency and with half a brain engaged. What an awful legacy to leave for our students!