This is not a simple question and there is not a straightforward answer.

 

Are there standards that have lower academic expectations than traditional school subjects? Yes, a number of Unit Standards designed for employment in industry.

 

Are some NCEA Level 1 Certificates more academic than others? Yes, but it is clear from the Record of Learning how academic an individual student’s Certificate is. 

 

Are there standards that are easier to pass than others? Yes, but that is because NCEA as a qualification covers all needs from those of bright students to those of less able students.

 

Do these standards open as many doors as more demanding standards? No. Under NCEA a student’s choice of course is very important for them.   Teachers and parents need to work together to ensure that a student chooses suitable courses.

 

Achievement Standards are the equivalent of the traditional school subjects. Getting a merit or excellence grade in them is quite challenging. Getting lots of excellence grades is a top achievement. At Level 3, the Scholarship examination is very academically challenging.

 

I think that the standard expected for top grades in Achievement Standards (academic courses) are better and clearer than in years before. In this respect NCEA has lifted standards.

 

In academic subjects, therefore, standards are rising and demands are becoming clearer.   But there are new standards now available many of which are less academically demanding. Many are specifically designed by employers and Industry Training Organisations to prepare students for trade and skilled employment. Years ago most of these students just failed academically. Now they can get a qualification at a level that is suitable for their prospective employment choices. Is this qualification less academic than the old SC? In some respects it is. But it is a qualification and it does show and record what they have achieved. In previous years these students just failed and that was that.

 

The central concern is about the courses that students choose.

If they choose courses that are too difficult they will fail and have few choices.

If they choose courses that are too easy they may well succeed but they won’t have as many choices available to them as they would have done had they passed more demanding courses.

 

At Kaipara, Tourism is the classic illustration of this dilemma.

This course is focussed on an industry which employs many people. There are Polytech qualifications available ranging from Certificates to Degrees. It teaches Geography and History in a straight forward simple and somewhat restricted range.

 

Academic students should not take this course. It is all Unit Standards and cannot lead to UE.

Students with average ability get a lot from this course. It includes planning, researching, calculating, writing, history and geography as well as customer relations and basic retail skills.

 

There are some student doing this course who in years gone by would have attempted the full academic courses in History and Geography. These students are not as academically challenged as they used to be but their success rate is considerably higher. There are many students in this course who now succeed in getting an industry related qualification who previously failed everything.

 

So does the establishment of a Tourism course dumb down the school? It might if academically able students insist on doing a course well below their abilities. It certainly doesn’t for those students who used to be failures but are now starting on the first rung of a widely supported, accepted and useful employment qualification. 

 

It all comes down to the increased care needed in helping students select the most appropriate courses for their abilities and their aspirations.