The government announced sweeping changes to school qualifications on Monday morning, including the end of the NCEA system that has been in place for more than 20 years.
NCEA Level 1, which typically takes place in Year 11, will be abolished. Students in Year 11 will be required to take English and Mathematics and sit a new ‘Foundational Skills Award’ test that documents achievement in literacy and numeracy, or te reo matatini and pāngarau.
It is not yet clear if the new Foundation Certificate for Year 11 will simply be the current online literacy and numeracy tests.
Two new qualifications replace NCEA Level 2 and Level 3. Year 12 and 13 students will now qualify with the New Zealand Certificate of Education (NZCE) and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education (NZACE) respectively.
Students will be required to take five subjects and pass at least four to attain each certificate in Years 12 and 13.
A to E pass fail grades will return instead of “excellent, merit, achieved and not achieved” rankings, and the government says plans include “working with industry to develop better vocational pathways so students are getting the skills relevant to certain career pathways”.
The changes will be phased in over the next five years, starting in 2026.
The proposal is open for public consultation until 15 September before final decisions are made.
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TL;DR: they’re changing the names of levels 1, 2, and 3, and going back to letter grades (A-E).
More performative bullshit to make the oldies happier about what they remember when they were at school.
The long term plan is to ruin the public education system so they can fund private schools instead. Needless to say those schools will not allow unions in.
