The NCEA debacle has been featuring a lot lately in the news. Tonight after reading of Act MP Debra Coddington’s latest press release on her 3 thousand and somethingth reason for dumping NCEA, I decided that I’d email her to ask what she thought should replace NCEA. I sent it at 6:00pm tonight and surprisingly received it at about 7:00pm!! Her reply is as follows:
Dear Calum,
…I would allow choice. Schools that want to keep the NCEA would be free to do so. At the moment it costs around $400 for each student to sit the NCEA. The Govt pays $250 and the student $150. With choice, the govt would pay the same contribution to those who want to sit the Cambridge exams, or the International Baccalureate. Or if schools wanted to go back to Bursary or School Certificate, then they could. It needn't cost a fortune. There's no reason why NZQA should have a monopoly on setting exams. They could be contracted out and we could get rid of a helluva lot of the bureaucracy and free up more money to spend on schools and teachers. If funding followed the child, and parents had real choice, instead of only affluent parents having choice, then parents would soon sort out which were the best qualifications for their own children. And employers, universities, etc would choose their intake according to the qualifications they valued the best. Those students half way through the NCEA "journey" are currently being used as guinea pigs. The wheels are falling off this handcart as it makes its way to hell. The National Party and the Labour Party should be made to compensate those students who have been let down by this fiasco…
No comments:
Post a Comment