BERL have done research that suggests 15,000 students have followed pathways that may be harder to replicate.
I'm not sure what the point of this research is.
They also claim the changes come at a cost of $50 million, most of which goes into relief teachers to cover staff working on changes.
The narrative is sort of presented as one of potential trouble, or a bleak future for kids that won't cope.
Here is what I know as a parent of five, who all dealt with NCEA at various levels – it’s a joke. Not all of it, but a lot of it.
The sad truth is that if 15,000 are not going to be able to carry on the way they were under this new system, I say not a moment too soon.
NCEA was, without putting too fine a point on it, a piss-take.
On paper the idea you could pick from a myriad of nice-to-haves, anything you want that didn’t need to be relevant to the real world or your chances at a job, was fun. You could piece together your eclectic selection of hobby topics and before you knew it, you had your credits.
This was a farce. In theory it's fantastic. In reality it was a rort to game the system.
When BERL say replicate the old system, this is what they mean; subjects no one cares about, or is getting work in, or subjects you may be interested in as a night class at polytech. None of it was designed to set you up for life.
It was designed to produce a factory of success stories so schools could say look at our pass rate.
You weren't passing anything of note.
So the next problem is when students turn up to real subjects, with real expectations, and they struggle. That will show up in figures.
It will show up in fails. Oh, I used that word that can't be used in education – "fail", "did not achieve", "not passed".
But that is how countries who succeed do it. They educate their kids in real-world subjects at real-world rates because, guess what, they are going out into the real world.
Our foray into educational fantasy was always going to end in tears. Between Covid and 25 years of NCEA we have sold a generation of kids short, if not down the river.
Sure, lots did fine. But that’s always the way.
Good kids never fail. It's the rest who didn’t know better, or who took the mickey, that will, and are, paying the price.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
The narrative is sort of presented as one of potential trouble, or a bleak future for kids that won't cope.
Here is what I know as a parent of five, who all dealt with NCEA at various levels – it’s a joke. Not all of it, but a lot of it.
The sad truth is that if 15,000 are not going to be able to carry on the way they were under this new system, I say not a moment too soon.
NCEA was, without putting too fine a point on it, a piss-take.
On paper the idea you could pick from a myriad of nice-to-haves, anything you want that didn’t need to be relevant to the real world or your chances at a job, was fun. You could piece together your eclectic selection of hobby topics and before you knew it, you had your credits.
This was a farce. In theory it's fantastic. In reality it was a rort to game the system.
When BERL say replicate the old system, this is what they mean; subjects no one cares about, or is getting work in, or subjects you may be interested in as a night class at polytech. None of it was designed to set you up for life.
It was designed to produce a factory of success stories so schools could say look at our pass rate.
You weren't passing anything of note.
So the next problem is when students turn up to real subjects, with real expectations, and they struggle. That will show up in figures.
It will show up in fails. Oh, I used that word that can't be used in education – "fail", "did not achieve", "not passed".
But that is how countries who succeed do it. They educate their kids in real-world subjects at real-world rates because, guess what, they are going out into the real world.
Our foray into educational fantasy was always going to end in tears. Between Covid and 25 years of NCEA we have sold a generation of kids short, if not down the river.
Sure, lots did fine. But that’s always the way.
Good kids never fail. It's the rest who didn’t know better, or who took the mickey, that will, and are, paying the price.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
Not total failures Mike, they could have gone on to uni and studied courses like “Creature Features: From Jaws to Planet of the Apes” or “Scream Theory; The changing face of fear” both currently offered by Canterbury Uni.
What better equipment for the rigours of real life?
The sad truth is many of these students who took the ' Mickey Mouse ' subjects did so because they were illiterate or innumerate or both and had no other choice . Back in the days of School Cert .half failed and there was persistent reluctance to lesson the standards because keeping high standards in education was important . Now our standards are appalling . Primary schools are largely to blame for this .The teachers are not to blame , although many are incompetent .Academia and the Ministry are to blame forcing on our children the worst imaginable ideology for over 50 years. That included a reading method where you guessed words , now thoroughly discredited by rigorous research and maths methods of having multiple ways of doing a simple manipulation also now discredited by cognitive science. It will be a decade before we see improvements in Secondary school exams.I grieve for the many 1000s of students who have had their bright futures trashed by the perverted minds of academics who created and forced this junk on children . It is not just covid to blame . How on earth can you compensate these children ? You can't . Support Erica Standford for standing strong while the school unions try to undo her efforts . Gaynor
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