Francesca Rudkin: The students impacted by NCEA glitch deserve another chance

I can’t think of many things more unsettling as a teenager, than sitting an exam, concentrating hard, putting your knowledge onto a screen, and then watching it all disappear. Not because you pressed the wrong button. Not because you forgot to save. Not because you didn’t charge your computer. But because the technology failed. 

This is what happened to students sitting the NCEA Year 12 English exam. And while computers occasionally have a mind of their own, the consequences of this major technical failure are very real for the young people caught up in it. 

Year 12 matters. These aren't simply practice runs for the big finale in Year 13. Year 12 results are often used for university and course applications, early entry decisions and scholarships. For some students, these grades help determine which doors open and which remain firmly shut. 

And then there's the question of fairness. 

Some students were allowed to continue working on paper with additional time, while others had to leave classrooms because the afternoon examination was due to begin. Some of the students who were able to continue on paper were effectively in an exam environment for four hours. Four hours! That's a long time to maintain concentration and produce quality written work, particularly when you're already dealing with the anxiety of an examination. 

An English exam requires thought, structure, creativity and clear expression. The longer students are held under exam conditions, the greater the fatigue and the harder it becomes to demonstrate what they know. 

And spare a thought for students with additional learning needs or special assessment requirements. For some, routine, predictability and a familiar environment are essential for them to perform. Suddenly changing the format, extending the time and disrupting established arrangements can be overwhelming. For these students, this isn't simply an inconvenience, it can fundamentally undermine their ability to participate. 

Now, I'm sure many students will be okay. As traumatic as it’s been, they'll get through, achieve the results they need and secure places in the courses or universities they want.  

For others though, these disrupted results could affect their choices, opportunities and future pathways.  

So what's fair? 

If a student believes their performance was compromised and wants to resit the exam then they should be offered a new, equivalent exam. Not a patch-up solution that relies on internals, or mock exams – which are often used by schools as a way for students to identify their weakness as they prep for the final exam, not a backup for a dodgy system.  

Obviously, schools did their best to find solutions to the utter chaos, but their solutions were wildly different. So, students should be given a genuine opportunity to demonstrate what they know under fair and consistent conditions. 

After all, parents, teachers and the Government constantly encourage young people to work hard, prepare well and take their education seriously. We're investing in raising educational standards in New Zealand and asking students to take responsibility for their results. Hence, they were relying on this exam to get the grade they’d worked hard for.  

Technology will fail occasionally - or quite often as we've seen this week! That's life. But the response to that failure is what defines the integrity of the system. These students didn't cause the problem. They shouldn't be expected to simply absorb the consequences. 

They deserve another chance. 

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