The Ministry of Education's proposal to introduce NCEA testing to students as young as 10 years old in the hopes of lifting literacy and numeracy levels has come under fire from those on the front line.
Primary and intermediate educators are concerned by the idea of testing children so young, especially after the Government abolished National Standards to take the pressure off testing students in 2017.
Labour campaigned on getting rid of National Standards.
Newlands Intermediate principal Angela Lowe told TVNZ 1's Breakfast today they hadn't been consulted at all.
"We had no idea at all, in fact, that this was even in the pipeline until we saw it on the Tomorrow's Schools review document, at that point we initiated a discussion with the Ministry of Education.
"I suppose we're opposed to it and we're not very supportive of it - put it that way. We don't think that it's a good time to be starting high-stakes testing on our students. They're 11 and there's plenty of time for them to get really serious about this stuff.
"To be honest we've only just got rid of National Standards and we've got a funny feeling that this might very well replace it."
Ms Lowe, who is also an executive member of the New Zealand Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools, said she doesn't believe testing them would address the concerns over low numeracy and literacy levels.
"They're better off to wait, enjoy their curriculum, enjoy their learning at Year 7 and 8, have a little bit of fun, engage in their learning, make it student-led, student-centred, develop a really good learning disposition, and then be ready to take part in more serious stuff in Years 9, 10, 11, 12."
Ms Lowe also said it wasn't clear if it would be imposed on schools and students, but said after meeting with the Ministry of Education she got the impression it was going to be optional.
"For many of our members in intermediates and middle schools, we'll probably all make our own individual decisions but there's no compliance with it."
However, she added that after talking with a secondary school educator about if some students had already completed the NCEA test and others hadn't, she was asked "what are we going to do with them if you've already done it?"
"So I thought, 'oh, okay, well then maybe we should just wait and let the secondary schools do it.'"
Pauline Cleaver, the Acting Deputy Secretary Early Learning and Student Achievement told 1 NEWS no decisions have been made and consultation on proposals is taking place.
"As part of the NCEA Review, we heard from lots of people that too many students leave school without the levels of literacy and numeracy needed for further education and work.
"One of the changes to address this is to assess literacy and numeracy separately from NCEA.
"We also know some children from Year 7 will achieve the literacy and numeracy levels required and we are currently engaging with schools on the proposal to assess their literacy and numeracy from Year 7 onwards, where appropriate," Ms Cleaver says.
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