Schools warned to prepare for tougher NCEA literacy and numeracy standards
March 15, 2021
Original Article:
Academics and teachers are warning a new mandatory NCEA literacy and numeracy test could be too tough for some teens.
The Ministry of Education recently unveiled draft versions of new standards students will have to pass in order to get any NCEA qualification from 2023.
The standards were developed after testing for the Tertiary Education Commission found 40 percent of teens with NCEA level 2 failed a basic adult literacy and numeracy test.
The Associate Dean of Education (academic) at Victoria University, Dr Michael Johnston, worked on the study for the commission and also advised the ministry on the new standards, which he said would be an improvement.
"It sets a benchmark at an appropriate level," Johnston said.
"The NCEA literacy requirement that we have at present did a very poor job of certifying the level of literacy that is required to be a fully functional citizen in the 21st century and I think that the new requirement is far better in that regard."
But he warned the new requirements would not of themselves fix the problem of poor literacy and numeracy when they became mandatory in 2023.
"There will be some young people coming through for whom there won't be time to get them up to scratch," he said.
"There need to be some fairly urgent moves to address literacy teaching in the younger years."
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