Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the passing rates for the new NCEA prerequisite tests

Transcript

Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the passing rates for the new NCEA prerequisite tests · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fifty five thousand teenagers have sat new n CEA tests
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: in May. Here are the pass rates. Reading fifty nine
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: percent past writing fifty six percent pass numerously forty six
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: percent pass. Not great, and you must pass these tests
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in order to get end CEA qualifications. On this result,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: tens of thousands wouldn't That's what it appears on the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: face of it. Anyway, this year and next year there
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: is a workaround for the students, so it's not an
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: immediate problem for us. Chris Abercrombie's the PPGA president, Chris,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning. Is this as bad as it sounds,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: because is this students who are sitting the test from
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: fifth formal or year eleven up or is it even
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: year nine s who are sitting these tests?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: So most of the students there are sitting in the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: saction in year ten the OLGA full form, so that's
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: where most of the students have been sitting this some
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: of year eleven for form, the vast majority are in
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: year ten.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And do you need do you need to pass it
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in year ten in order to get your ncas in
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: year eleven and onwards, or could you in theory actually
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: sit you're in ceas and then sit this these tests
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in your final year and pass it all sort of retrospectively.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, So there's no sort of time limit on this.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: You could do this in your last year at school,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: you could do it in year twelve. There's no real
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: time limit on this. And as you mentioned, there's still
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: dual pathways open for young people to be able to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: get there inca literacy and numeracy. But the options available.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Do we know what percentage of year eleven's are failing
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: these tests?
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Not, off the top of my head, I don't know that, say,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the vast majority are in year ten. So some of
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: these students potentially would have been their third times didn't it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: They would have sat it twice in year ten, and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: they could have said it in year eleven as well.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And nz QA is saying basically, if you if this
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: child is not ready, don't make them sit the test
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: because you're stressing them out and it's doing untold damage
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to their psyche. Well, at least that that was what
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: one principle said, is that the right approach't shouldn't you
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: be sitting it and failing and learning and trying again,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: getting up and trying again.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Well, there's definitely an element to it, but also you've
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: got to make sure students are ready for the assessment.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: So school should be using other factors, such as the
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: ASTOR or PAT tests to make sure students are sitting
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: at that level. Really to say, for some of these students,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: this could be the third time they've failed it, and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: so it has really demoralizing. So you want to make
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: sure students can pass the assessment before they do the assessment.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: One of the issues this is with numerocy is that
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: they needed students who were either borderline or failing, needed
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to take a position on questions and then justify the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: positions rather than just restating the claim that they'd made.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: And I remember at school they'd say, show you're working,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Show you're working, you know, explain yourself. Why is that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: more of a problem with students struggling with that more
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: now than ever before.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Well, it seems to be the case at the moment.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: And this is part of the sort of wider picture
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: of educational reforms that it's a really long term process.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: You know, if you think of a five year old
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: start in school, by the time we see them in
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: secondary it's ten years almost, And so you know, the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: education reforms a real long term, ten year process, and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: we've seen what sort of outcomes of short term thinking,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: and that's one of the here is there sort of
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: changes in curriculum changes and teaching the practice, etc.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Are we not teaching kids how to think anymore for themselves?
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Critically, Well, that was one of the real positives of
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: our sort of curriculum, was it was it was so
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: open ended. Thinking was a big part of it. Now
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: there's at least we need to go back to a
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: bit more scriptive curriculum to make sure certain things are done.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: And so they say, we're in in a bit of
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: a fucks at the moment in education.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Chris, thank you so much for your time. Chris Ebercrombie,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the PPTA president with us this morning. So not quite
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: as bad as the headline might sound. You know, when
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: you look at numerously in particular, thirty thousand out of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand kids failing. But you can sit the test anytime.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: It's not like you get to fifth form you have
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to pass it.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Then.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: However, from twenty twenty six, your child will need to
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: pass these three tests in order to get their NCA qualifications.
• 4:23
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• 4:26
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• 4:29
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