The final hurdle in a year of unprecedented disruption for students will begin today – NCEA end of year exams.
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate Year 12 students have a range of feelings about exams beginning, but all agree this year has been stressful and it’s their teachers and wider community that have helped them push through.
“I feel like everyone's nervous for exams given this is our first time experiencing lockdowns,” Monika Fakaosilea told 1 NEWS.
“I've been able to get things done and pull through with credits and for me, I’ve been relieved of my stress earlier this year and it’s been quite a challenge,” Tevita Fifita said.
Fellow student Ledwina Katuke is feeling excited.
“The teachers are going the extra mile for us, we've been given after-school classes and the opportunity to take those up,” she said.
In a bid to ensure all students have a fair opportunity at gaining qualifications regardless of how they’ve been affected by Covid-19, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has introduced a range of support measures this year.
The start date for exams has been delayed, extra ‘learning recognition’ credits will be in place, fewer credits are necessary for merit or excellence endorsements and University Entrance and Auckland students will receive additional credit support for losing more classroom time during the second Covid-19 lockdown.
NZQA chief executive Grant Klinkum said students have shown “extraordinary resilience”.
“I'd also like to acknowledge the support that schools and teachers have provided to students right throughout the year,” he said.
His advice to the 140,000 students sitting assessments over the next three weeks was to back themselves.
“It's always the case that students end up doing better than they might anticipate,” he said.
Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate principal Kiri Turketo said the changes announced by NZQA were a “good start to listening to what we actually need”.
“We won’t know if they will really work until at the end when we’re baking the cake, so our students are the ingredients and how they will come out of it, we won’t really know until next year,” she said.
The school has been providing extra tuition for students after school, on weekends and through holidays.
“Our staff have given up their family time to be available for students … and we'll continue to do that,” she said.
Throughout the exam period, senior students will remain at school to prepare instead of going home for study leave, where there are more distractions, Turketo said.
“We've also decided to make sure that we are open, kind of like a summer school, so we're available for our students.”
“We can see where they’ve gotten in their NCEA credits assessments, let’s say, and then we can just decide they need to come back for some more … I guess credit banking to get into the vocational pathways that they may need - whether that’s tertiary or going into a workforce,” she said.
The extra support is already making a difference.
“Just seeing the teachers having hope in me, seeing the potential in me, it’s just helping me a lot with all the tricky situation” student Paul Ma'afu said.
“Lockdown – stayed home, nothing to do, just lost that kind of encouragement, that motivation to continue with school but from the help of fellow friends, teachers, family, it’s been going good.”
He's looking forward to next year, and said he expects great things from himself and fellow peers as school leaders as well as the wider school community.
“With this year everyone’s been down, it’s not been very fun for our students … it’s all about academics but I believe that with academics it comes with skills along with joy,” he said.
“Just enjoying your time at school cause you only get this once in a lifetime.”
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