Last year, the entire secondary school examination team was replaced

The entire eight-person team that supported the exam centers last year resigned or took voluntary leave.
Photo: AFP

A week before the exams began, the Qualifications Committee admitted that almost the entire team handling its high school leaving exams had left and been replaced over the last year.

When RNZ asked about the situation earlier this month, authorities declined to comment on individual workers.

Last week, however, RNZ reported that the entire eight-person team who supported exam centers – the venues where NCEA exams were held – last year had resigned or taken voluntary redundancy.

It is said that the latest waiver will take effect after the examinations are over.

Authorities said all those who left had been replaced by experienced staff, with the team now consisting of seven members and four temporary staff.

She did not answer questions about the reasons for employees leaving.

The association of secondary school principals said it had no information about any disruptions in the organization of exams.

RNZ understands the team oversaw the work of test center managers – people employed each year to conduct exams at each testing center, usually in a secondary school.

Managers were responsible for developing daily plans to guide the examinations at their center and for finding staff to supervise the examinations.

The NZQA said as of Wednesday this week, 357 test center plans had been fully approved, with a further 84 having been reviewed by NZQA and sent to test center managers for changes.

It said 22 plans – mostly from very small schools – were yet to be reviewed by NZQA and progress was being well tracked.

Authorities said 5,774 test center staff were ready to be hired and contracts for another 1,324 were underway, a figure comparable to previous years.

NZQA said a total of 180 of its staff worked full-time on the NCEA assessment, and an overall attrition rate of around 14 per cent was average for the public service.

It concluded that the focus on one team does not fairly reflect the role that multiple teams play in supporting external examinations.

“It is always the case that exam planning for schools and the contracting of casual staff will continue until the exams start, with exams lasting four weeks and casual staff being placed for varying periods of time,” it said.