Education Minister Chris Hipkins will take a report to Cabinet in February with recommendations about how to change NCEA.

A proposal to completely overhaul NCEA will stop some students suffering the "perverse consequences" of a system focused on passing at any cost, says the country's secondary school union.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins has received a report back from his ministerial advisory group, which was set up to review NCEA, that proposes new achievement standards at level one that are specific to school projects.

The idea of "credit farming" and teachers putting students on a path of sitting credits they will be able to achieve, rather than on a career path, has long been a criticism of the NCEA model.

Post-Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) president Jack Boyle says the "overassessment" of NCEA has led to very negative impacts on students.

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"One off-shoot is they have a whole lot of meaningless credits that don't point them in any particular direction and through the shear weight of assessment they have the highest rates of anxiety and stress around assessment of any country in the OECD," he said.

The proposed review would half the number of credits at level 1 and would focus on less assessment and get rid of the need for external exams. Instead students would pick a project for the year and concentrate on improving literacy and numeracy.

Boyle says it's "long overdue" and Kiwi teachers, parents and students need to have confidence in a system that doesn't see young people "lost to any sort of employment, vocation or tertiary pathway".

"We have a duty of care to ensure those perverse consequences of an assessment system that is largely about getting enough credits rather than any shape or pathway, must be addressed," he said.

In 2002, School Certificate was replaced with the NCEA model - students in year 11 at the time were the first to trial the new system, which was rolled out across year 12 and 13 over the next two years, bringing to an end Sixth Form Certificate and Bursary.

Another option considered by the advisory group was removing level one altogether.

However, the positives of "lowering teacher and learner workload and making more room for the curriculum" were outweighed by the negatives.

"Around 20 per cent of school leavers either achieve no qualification or only achieve level one and these learners may be denied a real shot at obtaining a qualification before leaving school," the advisory group said.

"We also know that many learners, parents, and whānau value some formal assessment at level one so some schools may feel obliged to replace level one with other qualifications," the advisory group said.

"The rebuilt level one wouldn't replace the wide range of courses currently offered - and we expect that it will remain an option, rather than a mandatory step for all learners.

"For many learners, their favourite courses will be at the heart of their projects and could be a basis for developing literacy and numeracy."

The benefits of changing the level one standards, instead of scrapping the system, would "enable learners to pick a project which reflects their identity, language, culture and aspirations," the advisory group said.

In the lead-up to the election last year both National and Labour campaigned on keeping NCEA but acknowledged the system still had it flaws more than a decade after its introduction and needed reviewing.

There are six key recommendations in the report:

- Re-imagine NCEA Level 1 so it is focused on ensuring young people are prepared for further study, work, and life as citizens

- Strengthen and clarify our expectations for literacy and numeracy attainment

- Explicitly build into NCEA Levels 2 and 3 a requirement to prepare young people for further study, work, and life

- Provide support for teachers, schools, and kura to enable real learning and coherent programmes

- Strengthen and enhance the Record of Achievement so it provides a full picture of what young people have achieved

- Remove barriers to achieving NCEA, starting with fees, process for accessing Special Assessment Conditions, and access to quality curriculum support materials.

Hipkins said he was calling on the public to have its say on "updating our national school-leaving qualification". Public consultation ends on September 16.



"At stake is the opportunity to change how NCEA is used to prepare our students for life after school in a fast-changing world.



"Employers are telling us that students coming out of school don't have the right skills, students say more flexibility is needed and teachers say there's too much assessment, getting in the way of learning," he said.



Some of the options suggested by the advisory group included connecting students with local employers, iwi and polytechnics earlier so they have access to "different pathways during NCEA levels 2 and 3".



"All students have different strengths and abilities. I want every young person to have access to a pathway through NCEA that reflects their strengths, so that all students can fulfil their potential," Hipkins said.



"The outcomes of these discussions and debates – submissions, survey responses, and face-to-face feedback – will inform the final recommendations I take to Cabinet for how NCEA could be updated."



Hipkins will report to Cabinet in February with the consultation findings and recommendations about the future of NCEA.