Principals send PaCT packing

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.”

“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.

“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.”

The demonstration site is a reproduction of the live version of the PaCT, but has been populated with mock student information.