NCEA has taken the scholar out of scholarship. Untutored students are passing Geography, while the pass rate for Biology sank to 0.6 percent, Chemistry fizzled at 0.9 percent, and Physics got a subatomic 0.35 percent pass rate. English scholarships were OK with 0.33 passing and Accounting students did fine too. What does this all mean? Less scientists and doctors, more lawyers and accountants. Just what a Knowledge Economy needs.
I pity the poor smart bastards who end up with a "distinction" award. "I got fucked about by NCEA and all I got was this T-shirt" might be more appropriate.
Call me obtuse, but I always thought the aim of higher-level school exams was to demonstrate academic competence in order to prepare for the rigours of university; hence the phrase University Entrance. If this is so, why not just let university faculties set exams for possible entrants? I'm sure they would have a damned clearer insight into the skill set required than the NZQA.
Then again, I'd be horrified to see any entrance exams from the $239 million Un-university, Te Wânanga o Aotearoa. It's unbelievable that this jumped-up polywoly gets almost quarter of a billion dollars a year while UNITEC still can't call itself a university. TWA features four Bachelor degrees, one Postgrad Diploma, one Masters and one Doctor. UNITEC has 48 Bachelor degrees, 10 (useful) Postgrad Diplomas, 17 Masters and 2 Doctorates.
NZ Education; made by slackers, for slackers.
