NCEA can be better

Congratulations to Kirsty Johnston on another perceptive, well researched article on education. It asks whose interests are being served by NCEA? In New Zealand it helps considerably to be white and middle class. Such students reap the benefits of most aspects of our state provided education system.

Our education system has been failing most Maori and Pasifika students, and the children of families with low incomes, for many decades. Indeed, in the 1980s, with a very different, first-past-the-post assessment system, similar outcomes were evident. The difference is that, in the 1980s, students from low-income and Maori and Pasifika families “failed” School Certificate and UE.

NCEA, a much improved assessment system to my mind, is complex. While we can say that more are “achieving”, some are achieving far more “marketable” standards. The common denominators for those achieving less marketable standards are household poverty and/or a different cultural capital to the mainstream.

If our society was more equitable and fair, and household poverty eradicated, assessment results would be more likely to even out. Until then, demystifying NCEA and clearly communicating the rules and potential benefits of this “game” to all parents and students is essential.

A good assessment system is fair, achievable, and serves the interests of all students. With adequate and equity-based resourcing, I believe NCEA can be such a system. Vicki M. Carpenter, Grey Lynn.