NCEA

[Penelope_the_Penguin]

New Zealand has recently introduced a new education system called NCEA - National Certificate of Educational Achievement.

A brief overview -

1. It doesn't come into play until 5th form (year 11, age 15-16).

2. There is NCEA level 1 (5th form) NCEA level 2 (6th form), NCEA level 3 (7th form and end of school)

3. All through the year are assessments for which you get a given number of credits if you pass. You can pass at 3 different levels - Achievement, Merit and Excellence. Once you get achieved, you get the credits, the other two just make

you sound good.

4. To pass the year 80 credits are required for all 6 subjects altogether.

5. At the end of the year are the external exmaninations.

6. The marking system goes like this -

there are requirements for each level. For example: to get achieved you need 4 out of 6 achieved questions correct

to get merit you need 2 out of 4 merit questions PLUS 4 out of 6 A's

for excellence you need all of the above PLUS 1 out of 2 exc q's correct.

Here's where it gets tricky. If you have all requirements except, say, are short one achieved questions, you can fail.

For a science practical assessment, my year eleven english class came in furious after recieving their marks. It was required to get every single question correct for excellence. Unfortunately in the test you had to mention to use a ruler to measure the magnesium strip. This was merit question so, because that is one of silliest things ('why should you need to say 'with a ruler'. Is there another piece of measuring equipment I've misssed in my school life? Do they honestly believe someone may try to measure length with a forcemeter?'), because it was merit, many people were bumped down to achieved.

Now, here's where the conspiracy comes in -

One of the mathematics teachers said that one of her students worked out that to pass a certain maths assessment, you could get less than 50% to pass.

They are willing to push less intelligent students but where is the push to do as good as possible when they can get the bare minimum to pass?

The merit and excellence count for nothing. They are merely levels that make smarter people feel better, and even then, a small mistake on their part can make an excellence an achieved.

As long as you the the credits, you're in. They don't stream classes (except in some schools for year ten maths classes) and I'm not sure whether employers or universities are going to care whether you got excellence or achieved.

The conspiracy?

They are creating a stupid country with people of no ambition and limited intellect and for God knows what reason. The teachers have given up asking why, the parents dont understand the system and the majority of students hate it (or so I have heard).

[Pinecone]

A good conspiracy has a motive.

[Penelope_the_Penguin]

MOTIVE? They're trying to turn New Zealand's students into a bunch of under-achieving, slack, disorganised adults. No wonder we get brain drain. They're trying to stress us teachers out because we ask for a meagre pay rise. Really, Trevor Mallard is trying to make New Zealand an unhealthy, unintelligent environment.

[Phantom]

MOTIVE? They're trying to turn New Zealand's students into a bunch of under-achieving, slack, disorganised adults.

Yes, I got that part. But why?

[Xenojjin]

Sounds more like the NCEA is just a stupid program and nothing more . My school uses a curriculum called IB which is considered to be good , but I have seen many follies in it .

For 1. we often have teachers who dont know what they are teaching . I am serious , they really don't have a clue . We frequently have to remind our teacher's what chapter we are on because the IB program doesn't use books that match their curriculum so we always 'learn' in a bazaar order that makes no sense . Example ch1 then ch9 , ch5 ,ch7 .... switch to a new book .. ch2 , ch4 ect . I know other school programs do this but ours is ridiculous .

2 . our teachers dont teach us what is on the test . This is because all finals come from IB but the way the class is teached is chosen by the teachers . Teachers do not recieve a copy of what is on the actual final until 1 week in advance , in other words , we have no way of knowing if what we are studying is what we should be learning .

Find out more on IB screwed

( someone seriously devoted a .net website to the fact IB is stupid )

the point is school can just sometimes be dumb and pointless .

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Whne i was in school you didnt need to pass the exams to pass the class and it didint even count on our grade average, so why would you show up to take it or even care about passing it?

School systems are dumb ive learned more surfing the web and watching tv in one month than i ever learned in my 12 years of school.

[moe eubleck]

MOTIVE? They're trying to turn New Zealand's students into a bunch of under-achieving, slack, disorganised adults.

these children are someday going to be running New Zealand. I really dont believe that a conspiarcy to turn them into '' a bunch of under-achieving, slack, disorganised adults" is going to be beneficial to the future of that country.

the buzzer just rang... a penguin has just struck out.

[secondhand]

School comes at completely the wrong time in your life anyway. Most people I know that went to university were mature students. When I went most people there were well over 21 when they started.

Let's face it, when you're a kid all you want to do is play footy and smoke. So they should stop school at age 14, let kids do what they want for a bit and then learn the error of their ways later, ha ha ha.

I agree with Arashi, I learnt so much more after I left school. Boring, menial jobs give you the opportunity to think, and that sparks interest. So maybe they should take all forms of stimulation out of schools, and let the anti-boredom mechanism activate. You might get kids talking to each other and being creative then.

Sorry, lost the topic a bit.

As far as the conspiricay about the New Zealand thing goes, I think it boils down to incompetence on the education system's part. Here in England standards are forever changing, new grades are brought in, new tests, exams, etc. Today on the news I heard about a proposed strike of teachers, because they disagree with the testing of 7 year-olds. Bloody right too. Kids at school are constantly tested, while people blither on about "learning is fun". Don't confuse them too much.

Yes, you might be breeding a nation of imbeciles in New Zealand, but trust me most of the rest of the world will be the same. You'll be able to hear the colective moan of the damned from space. Aliens won't have to use a mind-eraser, schools will have already done it.

Hang on a minute...there's your conspiracy. The education board are under the payroll of aliens bent on enslaving the human race. The aliens, contrary to popular belief, don't have their mind eraser ready, they can't get the right batteries. So they're slowly making people more stupid from the grass-roots level.

Or is that being too stupid?