New Zealand Qualifications Authority

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA; Māori: Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is the New Zealand government Crown entity tasked with providing leadership in assessment and qualifications. It was established by the Education Act 1989.[3][2]

New Zealand Qualifications Authority
Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa
Agency overview
Formed1989
JurisdictionNew Zealand government
HeadquartersLevel 13
125 The Terrace
Wellington
New Zealand
Employees365 (2007)[1]
Annual budgetNZD ~$70 million[2]
Minister responsible
Agency executives
  • Murray Strong, Board Chairperson
  • Grant Klinkum, Chief Executive
Parent agencyMinistry of Education
Websitewww.nzqa.govt.nz

NZQA administers the National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and the New Zealand Scholarship for secondary school students. It is also responsible for the quality assurance of non-university, tertiary training providers, the New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications, and the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (National Qualifications Framework). It has further roles in evaluating overseas qualifications.

In July 1990 it took over the work of the former Universities Entrance Board, the Ministry of Education's examinations, the Trades Certification Board and the Authority for Advanced Vocational Awards.[4]

NZQA is funded from the central government as well as fees, with the budget being about $70 million each year.[2]

Governance

The Chief Executive, Grant Klinkum, and Board Chair, Murray Strong, were both appointed in 2014 and remain in place as of 2020.[5] Poutasi had previously been the Director General of Health and worked in senior management roles across the health sector. Suckling is a governance specialist and heads a Board appointed by the Minister of Education that represents industry, communication, and education interests.[6]

Māori strategy

NZQA's Māori strategy, Te Rautaki Māori 2012–2017, guides NZQA towards fulfilling its contribution to the government's education sector goal of Māori enjoying and achieving education success as Māori.[7] The strategy was launched in June 2012 with the two main goals of Accelerated Māori learner success and advanced use of mātauranga Māori.

NZQA has also produced two publications that support these goals – Enhancing Mātauranga Māori and Global Indigenous Knowledge (launched April 2014)[8] and the earlier Conversations on Mātauranga Māori (launched July 2012).

Review

A Targeted Review of Qualifications at levels 1–6 on New Zealand's ten-level qualifications framework commenced in 2008. The review aimed to ensure that New Zealand qualifications are useful and relevant to current and future learners, employers and other stakeholders.[9] NZQA administers the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) which was established in July 2010 as a result of the Targeted Review and is a comprehensive, up-to-date list of all non-university quality assured qualifications in New Zealand.[10]

Tertiary organisations are required to comply with statutory policies like the periodic external evaluation and review (EER) policy [11] that provides an independent judgement of the educational performance and capability in self-assessment of all non-university tertiary education organisations. In 2011 NZQA introduced a new set of incentives and sanctions for providers, based on EER results, to bring higher performance to the sector.[12]

In May 2014 NZQA introduced ‘Innovation at NZQA’ to its website [13] detailing the organisation's strategic thinking and ‘Future State’ programme of work around responding to a global and digital environment and trialling new processes and technologies.[14]

Numbers

In 2013 more than 143,000 candidates took part in the annual NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship examinations administered by NZQA [15] and achievement results were analysed in the Annual Report on NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship Data & Statistics released each year by NZQA.[16]

In 2016 more than 146,000 candidates sat NCEA and Scholarship exams. Because of the Kaikoura earthquake, the Scholarship exams were postponed.[17] Students in the Hurunui and Kaikoura districts were unable to attend their exams as their schools were closed, meaning they had to use their derived grades.[18]

Controversies

In 2005 the Authority's Chairman and CEO resigned after an investigation by the State Services Commission into the 2004 New Zealand Scholarship exams. In the physics exams only 39 out of 1,012 students who sat the exam received a scholarship while in English the result was 228 out of 587.[19] This, and the state of the Authority as a whole at that time, was described by media as a "debacle".[20]

Concerns over exams

In 2016, mistakes were made in the 2016 maths exam at every level.[21]

In 2017, many students and teachers were left perplexed by NCEA Level 1 MCAT externals, stating that they were "too difficult" and "not in the correct standard". NZQA stated that they had full confidence in their papers,[22] but the minister has asked for a review.[23]

gollark: No, I mean try and make it so most code can be represented as printable ASCII.
gollark: Fun but pointless and probably counterproductive idea: optimize for representing things as printable ASCII characters.
gollark: Unlikely.
gollark: Well, I could actually make an "abyss" a first-class concept.
gollark: Hmm, maybe an "abyss" would just be... a giant list of unwanted values?

See also

References
  1. "NZQA Annual Report 2006-2007" (PDF). NZQA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  2. "About NZQA". NZQA. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "QA News August 2000". NZQA. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  5. "Our structure". Nzqa.govt.nz. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  6. "NZQA Board Members". Nzqa.govt.nz. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Background to the New Zealand Qualifications Framework". Nzqa.govt.nz. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  11. "External evaluation and review". Nzqa.govt.nz. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "NZQA on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  18. "MinistryOfEducation on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  19. "Scholarship statistics 2007". NZQA. Archived from the original on 24 May 2005. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  20. Thomson, Ainsley; Dye, Stuart (17 May 2005). "Van Rooyen receives $50,000 to 'work' from home". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  21. Herald, New Zealand. "NCEA maths exam botch-ups at every level". m.nzherald.co.nz. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  22. "Teachers and NCEA students outraged over difficult Level 1 MCAT algebra exam". Stuff.co.nz. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  23. Collins, Simon (21 November 2017). "Minister orders report on 'too hard' maths exam". Nzherald.co.nz. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
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