GORDON LIGHTFOOT | National
WILD CONCEPT
The New Zealand Government has shocked the education sector this week with a bold and radical proposal: giving high school students grades based on how well they actually do in an exam.
The NCEA system currently requires students to collect “credits” like a weird video game, but that will all be scrapped in favour of a system where students sit an exam, write their answers, and then receive a number out of 100 depending on how right they were.
“This completely flips the script,” said one shocked Wellington principal. “We’ve spent the last 20 years trying to avoid telling students how well they’ve done.”
But in a return to the cruel old days of “success” and “failure”, the proposed new system will judge students based on things like how many correct answers they get, and whether or not their essays make sense.
Students would then be given a number, which would correspond to a grade. And those grades would indicate whether they understood the subject or not.
“We know it’s a dramatic change,” said Education Minister Erica Stanford. “But there’s a growing feeling that school should prepare students for reality. And unfortunately, reality sometimes involves not getting a gold star for turning up.”
Not everyone was on board. One Auckland high school student said she feared the new system might expose people who haven’t actually learned anything.
Supporters however say the move will give students clearer feedback, raise expectations, and hopefully lead to more adults that can read and write.
More to come.
