Labour govt 2020-23

[Blue Skies]

A related article. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/...tudents-report
"Some teachers and principals are worried the tests will be too difficult for some students and Māori and Pacific students will be particularly disadvantaged."
Does the test somehow know the particular race of the student? This sort of stuff makes me incredibly angry. Perhaps their solution will be to lower the passing grade for just Maori and Pacific students.

I think you've misunderstood. The NCEA tests are designed to test Reading, Writing & Maths levels, not fluency & familiarity with digital devices.

Since the tests are online & often require repeated scrolling up & down from question to answer, students who haven't had access to digital devices, who are suddenly presented with a test on a desktop, PDA or Tablet or iPad, are seriously disadvantaged & their results may not be a true indication of their reading writing or maths level.

There's plenty of adults who if they use macOS and then asked to do something on Windows, struggle with the alternative operating system, so imagine a year 10 student who has had little access to a digital device suddenly presented with a test on one. These students may do better with pen & paper.

It was an independent report so its silly to blame the govt & no need to get incredibly angry.
They just want a clear picture of these specific levels & there should/could be a seperate test for digital literacy.


Incidentally, despite the catastrophising of our education system, NZ is ahead of countries like Australia, UK & US in either writing or reading, and the US & UK have the top universities in the world.
Always aim for improvement but there's so much hyperbole in some quarters, we lose perspective.

[ValueNZ]

I think you've misunderstood. The NCEA tests are designed to test Reading, Writing & Maths levels, not fluency & familiarity with digital devices.

Since the tests are online & often require repeated scrolling up & down from question to answer, students who haven't had access to digital devices, who are suddenly presented with a test on a desktop, PDA or Tablet or iPad, are seriously disadvantaged & their results may not be a true indication of their reading writing or maths level.

There's plenty of adults who if they use macOS and then asked to do something on Windows, struggle with the alternative operating system, so imagine a year 10 student who has had little access to a digital device suddenly presented with a test on one. These students may do better with pen & paper.

It was an independent report so its silly to blame the govt & no need to get incredibly angry.
They just want a clear picture of these specific levels & there should/could be a seperate test for digital literacy.


Incidentally, despite the catastrophising of our education system, NZ is ahead of countries like Australia, UK & US in either writing or reading, and the US & UK have the top universities in the world.
Always aim for improvement but there's so much hyperbole in some quarters, we lose perspective.

What annoyed me about the article was the suggestion that Maori and Pacific students were somehow more disadvantaged than others. People who grow up in a low socioeconomic environment are disadvantaged, its correlation v causation.

I fully agree that students should be given the option to sit the test using pen and paper.

[davflaws]

What annoyed me about the article was the suggestion that Maori and Pacific students were somehow more disadvantaged than others. People who grow up in a low socioeconomic environment are disadvantaged, its correlation v causation.

Thank you for clarifying your position. We understand the article differently.

I got that the problem concerned students from "the realm". From the examples given, I took that to mean the Pacific Territories that are administratively part of NZ.

[Getty]

Anyone have an opinion on, or able to explain the reasoning behind Maori able to change back and forth between General and Maori electoral rolls?

[Logen Ninefingers]

Are there any clowns out there who intend to do the census but haven’t done it yet? If not, why not? Took about 5 minutes to complete. Sick of the deluge of TV ads begging people to ‘do the census’. It’s like the ‘car safety rating’ ads (“your neck will be snappy snap, stop talking, no more chatterbox”) that seem to have been running for about 10 years now. How many ‘one star rated’ cars are currently being sold in NZ?! How much money is being wasted on this type of garbage?

[peetter]

I think you've misunderstood. The NCEA tests are designed to test Reading, Writing & Maths levels, not fluency & familiarity with digital devices.

Since the tests are online & often require repeated scrolling up & down from question to answer, students who haven't had access to digital devices, who are suddenly presented with a test on a desktop, PDA or Tablet or iPad, are seriously disadvantaged & their results may not be a true indication of their reading writing or maths level.

There's plenty of adults who if they use macOS and then asked to do something on Windows, struggle with the alternative operating system, so imagine a year 10 student who has had little access to a digital device suddenly presented with a test on one. These students may do better with pen & paper.

It was an independent report so its silly to blame the govt & no need to get incredibly angry.
They just want a clear picture of these specific levels & there should/could be a seperate test for digital literacy.


Incidentally, despite the catastrophising of our education system, NZ is ahead of countries like Australia, UK & US in either writing or reading, and the US & UK have the top universities in the world.
Always aim for improvement but there's so much hyperbole in some quarters, we lose perspective.

This made me laugh. I actually grew up without computer and managed to learn how to use it in school in couple months. There's so much access to computers and digital devices for example in schools or libraries that your comment must be a satire. Do you actually think in year 2023 you'd find a kid that has problem scrolling? My guess is if you go to decile 10 school, you won't find a single kid that doesn't know how to use computer, tablet and phone.

[Blue Skies]

This made me laugh. I actually grew up without computer and managed to learn how to use it in school in couple months. There's so much access to computers and digital devices for example in schools or libraries that your comment must be a satire. Do you actually think in year 2023 you'd find a kid that has problem scrolling? My guess is if you go to decile 10 school, you won't find a single kid that doesn't know how to use computer, tablet and phone.

Oh it's extremely disappointing to read posts like this.

There are many kids in South Auckland for example where there is 1 digital device, maybe a tablet (& maybe its broken) for a family of 4 or 5 kids to share. Guess who gets the tablet for most of the night, - the eldest who may have left school, meaning the younger ones miss out.
There are hundreds of families in Northland, Tairāwhiti, etc where children have extremely limited access to good digital devices, even good internet.

[jonu]

Andrea Vance calling a spade a spade. Labour's "grubby irony".

"This was an administration obsessed with keeping an iron grip on the control of information, despite farting out promises to be the most open, honest, and transparent in history."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/1316...t-nash-scandal

Maybe Andrea's been reading sharetrader!

[peetter]

Oh it's extremely disappointing to read posts like this.

There are many kids in South Auckland for example where there is 1 digital device, maybe a tablet (& maybe its broken) for a family of 4 or 5 kids to share. Guess who gets the tablet for most of the night, - the eldest who may have left school, meaning the younger ones miss out.
There are hundreds of families in Northland, Tairāwhiti, etc where children have extremely limited access to good digital devices, even good internet.

That makes absolutely no difference to what I said, there will not be a single year 10 student that would fail, because they're not able to effectively use the computer.

I find this an interesting insight into your mind and frankly find it racist that you say kids of minority groups from South Auckland are not capable of using digital devices to the point their inability to scroll and click on checkboxes contributes to them failing tests.

[davflaws]

That makes absolutely no difference to what I said, there will not be a single year 10 student that would fail, because they're not able to effectively use the computer.

I find this an interesting insight into your mind and frankly find it racist that you say kids of minority groups from South Auckland are not capable of using digital devices to the point their inability to scroll and click on checkboxes contributes to them failing tests.

The article that started this discussion referred to children in NZ's Pacific territories.