Teachers' union panel warns NCEA replacement could leave more students without a qualification

A panel set up by the secondary teachers' union PPTA Te Wehengarua has called for changes to the Government's replacement for NCEA. It warns that parts of the new design could mean fewer students leave school with a qualification.

The nine-member panel, Tirotiro Anō, is co-chaired by Kate Gainsford and Melissa Denzler. PPTA says its members are current and former teachers, school leaders, researchers, and curriculum and assessment specialists. The panel looked at 12 aspects of the new system and made more than 80 recommendations and findings, Gainsford told RNZ. PPTA says delegates at its annual conference will consider them this week.

The report comes out five weeks before the 7 November election. National's pledge card promises "better school results by replacing NCEA", the Herald reported.

Under the Government's timetable, reported by the Herald, Year 11 students would sit a new foundational qualification from 2028. The New Zealand Certificate of Education would start for Year 12 in 2029, and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education would start for Year 13 in 2030.

Gainsford told RNZ the panel found a "lack of clarity and certainty around the proposed qualification design and changes signalled for implementation in 2028", and said this had affected people's confidence in the proposed reform.

"There are a lot of details that are not clear that either decisions haven't been made, or they haven't been made public, it's not clear which," she said.

In PPTA's release, Gainsford said that uncertainty also means there is still time for the recommendations to be considered.

Two design features worry the panel most. Students would have to pass three subjects, and every subject would have exams. PPTA's release calls both of them structural features that could restrict equitable access to qualifications. Gainsford told RNZ that a Ministry of Education paper to Cabinet showed the three-subject rule could lead to fewer students gaining qualifications.

PPTA's release says the Ministry's own analysis found disproportionate impacts for Māori and Pacific learners and disabled students.

Denzler said processes for "meaningful and authentic Māori participation and influence" in developing the reforms "were not evident or supported". Waatea News reported that the panel wants stronger evidence that the reforms meet Te Tiriti obligations. That includes Māori influence over decisions and active protection of te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori.

The panel found the "volume and pace of changes" were becoming "overwhelming" in schools, RNZ reported. It wants the Government to commit money and plans for subject-specific professional learning and advisory support well before the rollout.

The panel's broadest recommendation is a long-term process for changing education policy, curriculum and qualifications. According to PPTA, key education agencies and elected teacher union representatives would be part of it. Gainsford told RNZ she hoped for a cross-party review cycle so "we don't continue to experience a fairly unacceptable degree of policy lurch from one electoral cycle to another".

Labour's election policy comes close to that. The Herald reported that Labour would set up an Independent Council for Curriculum and Assessment. It would start as an interim expert group within three months of Labour taking office, and cost about $500,000 a year from existing education funding. NCEA would stay unchanged until 2029 while the council gave advice, and any changes would then be phased in.

In the same report, Education Minister Erica Stanford called that "classic Labour Party" and said "essentially it's kicking the can down the road". She was responding to Labour, not to the panel. Neither RNZ nor the Herald has reported a response from her to the Tirotiro Anō report.