The roll-out of major changes to both the curriculum and NCEA assessments is being slowed down in an attempt to lift the country’s falling standards of achievement in literacy and numeracy, Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced today.

Principals and teachers, who have been calling for a change in the timeline to allow teachers to understand what they mean and better prepare their students, have welcomed today’s announcement.

Tinetti announced the mandatory introduction of new NCEA assessment standards for Level 2 and 3 would be pushed back a year.

Schools will still be required to implement the new NCEA Level 1 next year but will not have to start using Level 2 until 2026 and Level 3 until 2027.

As Tinetti hinted at in an interview with the Weekend Herald earlier this month, there would also be a two-year transition period before the new numeracy and literacy requirements would be made mandatory.

The new reading, writing and numeracy tests students will be required to pass before they are awarded any NCEA qualification will still be brought in next year but in 2024 and 2025 students will also be able to sit and pass a specified set of maths and literacy assessment standards as an alternative.

In the second major trial of the new tests, held in September last year less than half of students passed the writing component - a slight improvement on the previous trial.

When it came to reading, 58 per cent passed while 57 per cent passed the numeracy standard.

Tinetti said the third change would mean schools would still be required to teach the refreshed English, maths, te reo Māori and pāngarau areas of the curriculum by 2026 but would now not have to teach the rest of the refreshed curriculum until 2027.

Tinetti said the altered timelines followed feedback from teachers and principals who said delaying some of the changes meant they could focus on kids’ outcomes.

“Three years of Covid-19 disruptions have left teachers and students exhausted, so we want to make sure that we are easing that workload a bit and are focusing on what matters to families most,” she said.

“We share the same goals of wanting kids at school, attending regularly and learning the basics they need to live fulfilling lives. So we’ll keep on with the changes that are needed, but roll it out at a pace that works for teachers and principals – which is good for the education system in the long term.”

Tinetti said her hope was that the slowdown would allow schools to focus on students’ literacy and numeracy ability.

“As Minister of Education, my bottom line is to ensure our young people are getting the education they need and deserve. This includes giving students, along with their parents and employers, confidence that they are leaving school with a strong foundation in maths and literacy,” Jan Tinetti said.

As the Herald outlined in its recent Making the Grade series, student achievement in core subjects has declined over the past two decades based on both national and international studies.

Secondary Principals Association of NZ president Vaughan Couillault said this change had been requested by many in the secondary sector for some time because of concerns about the capacity of schools and teachers to implement the required changes to NCEA.

“I think it will certainly take some pressure off the sector - not in terms of content or dumbing down but in the mode of delivery and terms of assessment.

“With this adjusted timeline, schools will have more time to build their capacity and adequately prepare for the changes, ensuring that the new standards can be more successfully integrated into teaching practice.”

Secondary Principals’ Council chair Kate Gainsford and Post Primary Teachers Association acting president Chris Abercrombie said principals were glad the change enabled the refreshed curriculum to drive the changes to NCEA, rather than the other way around.

“We had serious concerns about the fact that these changes were being done independently of each other and the cart was being put before the horse. It’s imperative that the curriculum is at the forefront of teaching and learning and the changes being made to it need to feed into the development of the new NCEA achievement standards,” Abercrombie said.

“The new timeline will enable teachers to be involved in the curriculum refresh in a way that isn’t happening now. We are pleased that the Minister understands this and she has listened.”

He said the new timeline must include professional development for teachers to allow the changes to be implemented as successfully as possible.

As for the new NCEA literacy and numeracy corequisites, Abercrombie said he would have preferred that the tests not be introduced at all for a couple of years rather than having a transition period with an alternative pathway.

“We welcome the corequisites as a means of strengthening young people’s literacy and numeracy ability. However, the pilots are showing there is a lot more work needed to ensure that the corequisites are accessible and equitable for all students.

“These corequisites are high stakes for rangatahi – if they can’t achieve them, they don’t get NCEA and their life choices are severely diminished.”

National’s Education spokesperson, Erica Stanford, said delaying the assessments was an admission from Labour that their education policies were failing New Zealand’s kids.

“This delay is a panicked response from Labour as they finally wake up to how serious New Zealand’s declining education standards are.

“The Government’s pilot of this assessment showed that 90 per cent of students in decile one schools would have failed, and therefore could not obtain any NCEA qualification. Labour has neglected the very students that need a great education to change their lives.

“Overall, more than half of New Zealand students involved in the pilot were unable to pass a foundational writing test the OECD says is necessary to succeed in further learning, life, and work.

“It is clear the Minister and her predecessor had no clue the pilot results would be this bad.”

Stanford said Labour was “in the dark” about the progress of New Zealand’s children because they hadn’t assessed students’ progress since they had been in Government.