5,000 signatures reached
To: Erica Stanford, Minister of Education
Save NCEA - Strengthen, Don’t Replace it!
👉 We urge the Government to stop the replacement process and instead engage in authentic, sector-wide consultation to improve and future-proof NCEA.
👉 We urge the Government to stop the narrowing of the New Zealand Curriculum and the removal of a wide range of NCEA subjects so as to ensure that learners’ needs and interests are met.
Why is this important?
There has been little genuine consultation with schools, whānau, or iwi about what is a major change to what and how we assess. Any changes of this scale needs to be informed by the diverse communities that our education system serves.
NCEA is not perfect - but it has proven strengths, flexibility, and the ability to serve all learners across diverse pathways, whether academic, vocational, or community-based. Instead of scrapping it, we call on the Government to work alongside educators, students, whānau, and industry to strengthen NCEA through curriculum alignment, a standards review, and genuine co-design.
Replacing NCEA risks:
- Disadvantaging Māori, Pasifika, neurodivergent learners, migrants, second language learners, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This has been cited in cabinet papers about the proposal as a likely outcome if NCEA is replaced.
- Narrowing subject choice, creative course design and limiting pathways for students, whether they are university-bound or not, the proposed changes fail to recognise the benefit of a wide range of subjects and assessment opportunities designed to meet the needs and interests of a wide range of learners.
- Reverting to an increased focus on external assessment and exams will have an impact on flexible course design and may negatively impact student wellbeing. We must retain flexibility about how we assess our young people.
- A shift to letter grades and percentages which is a regression to outdated, hierarchical models that will likely lead to scaling, bell curves and league tables.
- More young people will leave school without a meaningful formal qualification. Retaining Level One NCEA as an optional certificate ensures we can meet the needs of more learners.
We believe New Zealand needs an inclusive, future-focused qualification system that values all learners because that is how we build a connected, productive, and ambitious society. That system is NCEA – and it can be strengthened. Replacing it puts all those things at risk.
Together, let’s protect NCEA and ensure our qualification system continues to serve every learner in Aotearoa.
Please sign this petition so we can make sure NCEA remains and that we focus on strengthening rather than scrapping our national assessment framework.
📢 We also encourage you to have your say by completing the official consultation survey before 15 September 2025: https://www.education.govt.nz/consultation-ncea
About Aotearoa Educators Collective
Aotearoa Educators Collective is an umbrella collective created to support education thought leaders who share a common interest in promoting progressive ideals in education. The group includes academics, principals and teachers and is not aligned to any political party.
https://www.aec.org.nz/
📢 We also encourage you to have your say by completing the official consultation survey before 15 September 2025: https://www.education.govt.nz/consultation-ncea
About Aotearoa Educators Collective
Aotearoa Educators Collective is an umbrella collective created to support education thought leaders who share a common interest in promoting progressive ideals in education. The group includes academics, principals and teachers and is not aligned to any political party.
https://www.aec.org.nz/
How it will be delivered
We plan to deliver the petition formally to the House of Representatives, addressed to the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford. This ensures it is tabled in Parliament and officially acknowledged.