Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the passing rates for the new NCEA prerequisite tests

A reassurance that students failing new NCEA pre-requisite tests will still have options to get their qualifications. 

Less than half of the 55 thousand students who passed the tests passed numeracy, with 59% passing reading, and 56% passing writing. 

Students must pass all three tests to start receiving NCEA qualifications. 

PPTA President Chris Abercrombie told Ryan Bridge there's no real time limit on this. 

He says students could do it in their last year of school and there are still dual pathways. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifty five thousand teenagers have sat new n CEA tests
in May. Here are the pass rates. Reading fifty nine
percent past writing fifty six percent pass numerously forty six
percent pass. Not great, and you must pass these tests
in order to get end CEA qualifications. On this result,

(00:22):
tens of thousands wouldn't That's what it appears on the
face of it. Anyway, this year and next year there
is a workaround for the students, so it's not an
immediate problem for us. Chris Abercrombie's the PPGA president, Chris,
good morning, Good morning. Is this as bad as it sounds,
because is this students who are sitting the test from

(00:42):
fifth formal or year eleven up or is it even
year nine s who are sitting these tests?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So most of the students there are sitting in the
saction in year ten the OLGA full form, so that's
where most of the students have been sitting this some
of year eleven for form, the vast majority are in
year ten.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
And do you need do you need to pass it
in year ten in order to get your ncas in
year eleven and onwards, or could you in theory actually
sit you're in ceas and then sit this these tests
in your final year and pass it all sort of retrospectively.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Absolutely, So there's no sort of time limit on this.
You could do this in your last year at school,
you could do it in year twelve. There's no real
time limit on this. And as you mentioned, there's still
dual pathways open for young people to be able to
get there inca literacy and numeracy. But the options available.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Do we know what percentage of year eleven's are failing
these tests?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Not, off the top of my head, I don't know that, say,
the vast majority are in year ten. So some of
these students potentially would have been their third times didn't it.
They would have sat it twice in year ten, and
they could have said it in year eleven as well.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
And nz QA is saying basically, if you if this
child is not ready, don't make them sit the test
because you're stressing them out and it's doing untold damage
to their psyche. Well, at least that that was what
one principle said, is that the right approach't shouldn't you
be sitting it and failing and learning and trying again,

(02:14):
getting up and trying again.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, there's definitely an element to it, but also you've
got to make sure students are ready for the assessment.
So school should be using other factors, such as the
ASTOR or PAT tests to make sure students are sitting
at that level. Really to say, for some of these students,
this could be the third time they've failed it, and
so it has really demoralizing. So you want to make
sure students can pass the assessment before they do the assessment.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
One of the issues this is with numerocy is that
they needed students who were either borderline or failing, needed
to take a position on questions and then justify the
positions rather than just restating the claim that they'd made.
And I remember at school they'd say, show you're working,
Show you're working, you know, explain yourself. Why is that

(02:59):
more of a problem with students struggling with that more
now than ever before.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, it seems to be the case at the moment.
And this is part of the sort of wider picture
of educational reforms that it's a really long term process.
You know, if you think of a five year old
start in school, by the time we see them in
secondary it's ten years almost, And so you know, the
education reforms a real long term, ten year process, and
we've seen what sort of outcomes of short term thinking,

(03:26):
and that's one of the here is there sort of
changes in curriculum changes and teaching the practice, etc.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are we not teaching kids how to think anymore for themselves?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Critically, Well, that was one of the real positives of
our sort of curriculum, was it was it was so
open ended. Thinking was a big part of it. Now
there's at least we need to go back to a
bit more scriptive curriculum to make sure certain things are done.
And so they say, we're in in a bit of
a fucks at the moment in education.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Chris, thank you so much for your time. Chris Ebercrombie,
the PPTA president with us this morning. So not quite
as bad as the headline might sound. You know, when
you look at numerously in particular, thirty thousand out of
fifty thousand kids failing. But you can sit the test anytime.
It's not like you get to fifth form you have
to pass it.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Then.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
However, from twenty twenty six, your child will need to
pass these three tests in order to get their NCA qualifications.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
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