Andy England: Darfield High School Principal on NCEA Level 1 achievement falling, secondary teachers strike

NCEA Level 1 achievement's dropped to its lowest level in a decade, while all qualifications saw improvement. 

In 2024, achievement in Levels 2, 3, and University Entrance went up for the first time since 2020.  

Student's completing Level 1 continued to drop, and Māori also fell further behind. 

Darfield High School Principal Andy England told Ryan Bridge there've been problems with the qualification since its introduction. 

He says there's been a lot of tinkering for teachers to get their heads round and some of the introduction texts were awful. 

And secondary teachers will soon swapping their pens for pickets. 

Post Primary Teachers' Association members will put down the tools next Wednesday, rejecting a 3% pay increase over three years. 

Public Service Minister Judith Collins says the union didn't even have a counter offer. 

PPTA member and Rangitoto College teacher Paul Stevens says the offer is essentially a pay cut during a teacher shortage. 

He says it means wages don't even match inflation. 

England told Bridge with an incoming NCEA overhaul he gets where teachers are coming from. 

He asks what would you say if your boss offered to pay you less and work harder. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New NCAA achievement data out mixed results. Number of students
achieving NCAA Level one down to the lowest level in
a decade, done slightly but still the lowest in a decade.
NCAA levels two and three posting the first increase in
pass rate since the beginning of the pandemic. So starting
to sort of turn the corner and well, all of
this systems out the door anyway soon. Andy England is

(00:21):
Starfield High School principal with us this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Andy, good morning, Good morning Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
What's up with level one do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think it's pretty well known at school. Haven't been
prioritizing level one for quite some time, but there are
also a few other things that been happening there. That's
the level where the experimentation happened with new standards the
ministry was before the decision to change all of the standards.
There's a lot of playing with level one, so I
think teachers were getting the head around it. And some

(00:50):
of the introduction materials were absolutely awful, arrived late, and
we're not high quality at all, so that may have
affected a too. We've also got the c AA or
co WRECK Exams of Literacy and numeracy, and a few
students have struggled with those. If you remember the they
came in at the highest standard, which is great, but
there wasn't there one that there weren't the years of

(01:13):
teaching to match the standard, So students were several students
were put off by those who we say so, I
think the combination of factors were affected level one. In
areas like ours, there are still there are still jobs
in the out there for students who they don't need qualifications.
You know, there are people looking for young people to
start work without qualifications, and the temptation for somebody who

(01:35):
doesn't see an academic future to start getting paid for
work is high for a few people, and that's not
a high number, but they all ad up.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
So live one actually doesn't really matter that much if
you're leaving school, who cares?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Lots of the lots of people have still got role
models who are self employed tradees. They're driving around with
a nice new ut and the boat and they left
school at fifteen and they're quite happy to tell everybody that.
So there's certainly some role modeling. What about that happens?

Speaker 1 (02:03):
What about level two and three is increasing? I mean
it's a slide increase. But are we finally turning that
COVID hangover corner? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I think it's too early to say that. I think
what's happened is we've had a few years, not many,
two three years to focus and get some students back
up to speed. Their school teachers are pretty good at
at wrapping around students, and I guess NCAA does give
that sort of flexibility, which is one of the features
that's been criticized recently, particularly at level two. So yeah,

(02:32):
I think students are also realizing that they actually at
that level. Once they've stayed on in school for a while,
I think they understand they need to get a qualification.
It's totally anecdotal, but I've noticed over the years, whenever
you see a dip in the economy and there are
fewer of those other jobs around us talking about, students
realize that they need to get a qualification. So those

(02:52):
who stick in school I think are focusing a bit
better and that's a really positive thing.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, your construction jobs are gone, your heroes, your membs
centers are gone, so they stay.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, they compete yeah, sorry, sorry, right, they're competing against
adults in the late twenties, so they's going to get
their act together.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Hey, what about the strikes. I know that's not what
we've got you on for, but do you think there's
going to be support from pearents for this?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Interesting? I think there were limits of support last time,
but I think the situations this time. This time, there's
been a lot of news, obviously about the changes that
we're all going to need to make with the education system.
I appreciate this talk in the long term, but it's
certainly not going to do anything in the next next
three years. Teachers are going to need to work harder
than other properly, and one percent we know is a

(03:38):
net net sort of decrease in income. So I guess
i'd ask you the question, what would you say if
your boss says we needed to work harder and more
difficult commisions, we're going to pay you less.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, but then you've got your pay progression, which according
to the Public Service Commission, they reckon that's up four
and a half to seven and a half percent, and
your pay when you when you add that into the mix.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, yeah, Hey, there's going to be some new answers
that they're going to need to do that will need
to be debated through. I can't deny it's a pretty
record trigger to a strike and certainly I got a
shotgund and saw that yesterday. But I don't think anybody
would be expect would be surprised to see some resistance.
There are some other layers to in the offer there
and not just pay related that aren't great for teachers.

(04:20):
So now I think I think most parents will have
some sympathy for teachers at the moment. Everybody knows it's
a tough place to work in school. When Australia is
paying significantly more than what we do, we're not going
to do anything to halt the teacher shortage if we're
not going to make some conditions better.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Andy, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for coming on
Indy England Darfield High School Principal. For more from Early
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