Radical changes to senior school exams have been slammed by the head of one of our biggest schools as "dangerous" and "irresponsible".

Auckland Grammar School headmaster Tim O'Connor, where 60 per cent of senior students sit British-based Cambridge exams, predicts that more schools will abandon the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) if changes proposed in a discussion document are adopted.

He says the document's authors are "in la-la land" in saying that students should have "capabilities and attitudes for lifelong learning" by the end of Year 11.

"I think we are standing in the quicksands of NZ education right now," he said.

"We are going to be going into a deep, dark place in what I see as a lack of responsibility by the adults for the children in this conversation.

"I frankly believe that the removal of NCEA Level 1 in the manner that they are describing it - literacy and numeracy and even having a conversation about does financial and civic literacy fit into that definition of literacy - is a very, very dangerous start."

The discussion document, which kicks off what promises to be a fiery consultation period, proposes reducing NCEA Level 1 from an 80-credit, multi-subject qualification to 40 credits - 20 for literacy and numeracy and 20 for a project "driven by learners' passions".

Literacy and numeracy requirements at Level 1 would be tightened, responding to criticisms that students can gain literacy credits from subjects such as art history.

But the document suggests that the meaning of literacy might be broadened to "encompass skills like digital, financial or civic literacy".

It would require at least 20 out of 80 credits at NCEA Levels 2 and 3 to come from "pathway" activities such as trades courses, research projects and community work, often partnering with outside employers, tertiary institutions and community groups.

It would reduce the current complex menu of 9360 NCEA "standards", many of which are worth only two or three credits, down to larger chunks of "coherent courses".

Students' achievement records would be rewritten in curriculum vitae format showing their "capabilities", "attitudes" and extra-curricular achievements as well as the courses they have passed.