Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Erica Stanford doesn't need to apologise for raising standards

All right, we need to talk about a news story that has been written in such a way that you're supposed to be alarmed by the fact that nearly half of all Year 12 students might fail Erica Stanford's NCEA replacement.

The story is this - at the moment, 15 percent of Year 12 students fail NCEA Level 2. But modelling suggests that once Erica Stanford replaces NCEA with her new secondary school qualification, that figure could jump to nearly 30 percent of students. And that's in the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, nearly 45 percent of Year 12 students could fail.

Now, the way this story is written, you're supposed to be alarmed because Erica Stanford is forcing a curriculum change on students that will supposedly cause them to fail. But I would argue that you should be far more alarmed that so many of our kids are not learning well enough to meet a more rigorous standard of assessment.

The fact that so many students could fail is, frankly, proof of exactly why we need to get rid of NCEA. Too many of our kids are not learning properly.

And the evidence is almost everywhere you care to look. Yes, look at this modelling, but also look at what's been happening with the PISA rankings for nearly 20 years, during which New Zealand's performance has been in consistent decline.

This year, only 38 percent of Year 12 students passed the reading co-requisite. Only 35 percent passed the writing co-requisite. Only 33 percent passed the numeracy co-requisite.

That is not good enough.

University lecturers have publicly complained that students arriving at tertiary education are unprepared and lack the basic skills needed to succeed at university.

And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out why. Secondary school students are drifting through NCEA, piecing together random credits to gain a qualification that does not necessarily demonstrate mastery of the fundamental skills you would expect them to have learned at school.

The problem with students failing a more demanding assessment is not that the assessment is too hard. The problem is that they are not learning enough.

No one should apologise, least of all Erica Stanford, for raising standards. Especially when it comes to our kids.

LISTEN ABOVE