95bFM New NCEA tests ‘creating equity crisis’ among low-income schools
4 March, 2025
Interview by Joel Armstrong, adapted by Natasha Gordon
The Principal of Papakura High School, Simon Craggs, says new NCEA reading, writing, and maths tests, will be “disadvantageous to our kids”.
Roughly 50 principals from low-income schools have banded together to express their concerns regarding the new NCEA reading, writing, and maths tests.
This comes as over half of NCEA students at low-income schools last year failed reading and writing tests, with three-quarters of those failing numeracy testing.
The current tests are being criticised as poor assessment practice because students have to wait months before they get their results, with little chance for feedback.
The Principal of Papakura High School, Simon Craggs told 95bFM’s The Wire that the exam itself is online, which he says is currently an untested assessment method and will result in a generation of students without qualifications.
The ACT Party's education spokesperson Laura McClure recently accused the group of principals of lowering expectations.
"As a country, we cannot afford to lower expectations and create a workforce defined by mediocrity. We must aim higher and empower every student to reach their potential," she says in a statement.
Craggs said that he was disappointed by ACT’s stance on re-evaluating the NCEA reading, writing, and maths tests.
“The ACT Party spokesperson obviously didn't listen to the interview. What I've said and what the other principals have said right from the start is we are very supportive of efforts to strengthen literacy and numeracy requirements for NCEA, we've got absolutely no issues with that.”
“The problem is it's just a bad test and it's disadvantageous to our kids. That's the issue, It's got nothing to do with lowering standards.”
Craggs says the current test model is creating an equity crisis in our education system as they haven't consulted with enough voices from the wider education community.
“I think we just need to co-design an assessment that actually measures what students can do — not what they can't do,” Craggs says.
The Papakura Principal says students at his school have demonstrated that they are competent in reading, writing, and maths, but still fail the tests.
“When [these students] actually sit the test, many of them, in fact, the majority of them, are still failing [these] tests.”
He says well-tested assessment methods already exist, such as e-asTTle, that could be used instead of these online exams.
“I think we need to go back to the drawing board. I think the whole process right from the beginning [needs to be revisited].”
Craggs says the current tests are poor assessment practice because students have to wait months before they get their results.
“There's actually very little feedback as to the areas that they need to improve in and often they're sitting the next round of tests before they really know where they went wrong on the previous test.”
