Principals across New Zealand have roundly rejected the ‘Progress and Consistency Tool’ (PaCT) designed to improve the reliability of national standards, and say that the Ministry of Education announcement about a special website to promote the tool is wasted resource.
“It is no secret that the national standards are a flawed measure of achievement,” said Whetu Cormick, president of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF). “It makes no logical sense to then try and make a flawed measure reliable.”
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“What our young people and their parents want is to see progress across all subjects in the curriculum. Our priority and struggling learners especially need authentic contexts and a broad range of learning opportunities,’ he said.
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“What we don’t want to do is get bogged down in micro-analysis of the three R’s (reading writing and maths), and neglect the very curriculum subjects that can empower, challenge and motivate our young learners. New Zealand has a world-class curriculum and the parents in our school communities expect their children to have full access to it at all times.”
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The demonstration site is a reproduction of the live version of the PaCT, but has been populated with mock student information.
