The government's proposal to scrap NCEA risks turning back the clock on decades of progress toward a student-centred system.
"Scrapping the entire NCEA system is throwing the baby out with the bathwater," says the Green Party's education spokesperson, Lawrence Xu-Nan.
"Every child deserves a high-quality, free, accessible public education that gives them the best possible start in life.
"When NCEA was introduced, it was the result of work by educators and communities to move Aotearoa away from a system that was narrow, constraining, and rationed.
"NCEA, while not perfect, recognised learning takes place in different ways, and that young people deserve opportunities to succeed in ways that fit them.
"Today's announcement is another classic case of the Government favouring one-size-fits-all approaches. Our education system is too important to be reduced to a single, rigid framework that will leave many behind.
"Our rangatahi are so much more than just workers-in-training. Education should not be designed simply as an add on to the labour market or to conform to narrow economic thinking, but to grow the whole person.
"The Green Party will work consistently and carefully with all stakeholders, including teachers, students, and whānau to ensure any changes to the education system reflect the individual needs of our diverse tamariki.
"To ensure our learners can thrive, education must be shaped by communities to meet their educational and learning needs. Our rangatahi deserve a system that equips them to achieve their unique potential, not one that measures them against a single standard," says Lawrence Xu-Nan.
