NCEA concerns aired by Dunedin educators, pupils

OTAGO educators have a range of concerns about the national certificate of educational achievement (NCEA), judging by a Dunedin workshop.

The workshop, held at the Edgar Centre on Tuesday night, was the Dunedin leg of about 20 such public meetings across the country, part of the Government’s ongoing review of the secondary school qualification.

The Otago Daily Times sat with a group including a teacher, a school principal and an education academic as they were asked to write their views, on a series of postit notes, regarding the state of NCEA and how it could be improved.

The concerns raised included: The ‘‘demoralising’’ workload for both pupils and teachers. A persistent lack of understanding from employers regarding the qualification.

An excessive focus on assessment at the expense of teaching and learning.

‘‘Unfair and arbitrary’’ merit and excellencelevel assessment schedules.

The group also voiced support for scrapping external exams for the first year of the NCEA, as mooted in a discussion document released as part of the review

A Dunedin high school teacher said the qualification sometimes stymied pupils’ enthusiasm and encouraged teaching focused around assessment schedules

‘‘We have to rein in their excitement . . . I think that’s a real shame.’’ Another group member said high school pupils became adept at working the system, a problem that itensified as they moved through the levels.

‘‘When students talk about the course they talk about the standards and the credits . . . they don’t talk about the learning.’’ Kavanagh College year 13 pupil Elliot Blyth said NCEA was a good system which had worked well for him, but there was room for improvement.

Elliot, a school prefect who had achieved NCEA levels 1 and 2 with excellence, said for highachieving pupils, earning the highest grade could serve as a ceiling.

‘‘For the seriously academic people, it doesn’t offer too much in the way of expansion beyond getting an excellence.’’