New Zealand to overhaul high school qualification to lift falling standards

Present credit-based model described as disastrous, 'fairly worthless' on world stage

- Ong Hui Fang

WELLINGTON - Disastrous, terrible and useless. This is how Dr Jamie Beaton, co-founder of consultancy Crimson Education, described New Zealand's high school national qualification, which has been put on the chopping block by the Education Minister recently.

Dr Beaton, who has 11 degrees from top universities around the world including Harvard and Oxford, did not hold back as he described to The Straits Times how grade inflation and dependence on internal assessments had made "school easy" and the qualification "fairly worthless" on the world stage.

The chief executive of Crimson Education, which helps high school students from New Zealand and other countries, including Singapore, secure places at the world's top universities, has long viewed the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) as putting local students at a disadvantage.

It has been the main qualification for high school students since 2002. NCEA was designed to be flexible and standards-based, catering to both academic and vocational pathways. Each standard represents a specific set of skills and knowledge, and students earn credits when they achieve those standards. Both internal assessments and external exams contribute to students' final grades.

"We do send plenty of NCEA students abroad, but it is fundamentally a major disadvantage," said Dr Beaton, adding that leading Kiwi schools offer their students the Cambridge A-Level exam or the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme.

He urged a return to robust, standardized external examinations to bring the average New Zealand student "close to being globally competitive" and stop the slide in the country's university standards over the years.

Addressing the mounting concerns about NCEA's credibility, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford announced on Aug 4 sweeping reforms to the national qualification.