School Certificate – It Doesn't Improve

Tu Tangata, Issue 35, 1 April 1987, Page 26

School Certificate - It Doesn't Improve

HE MATAURANGA

The figures for the 1985 School Certificate examinations were released in November, 1986. They are of great interest since they will be the last set of statistics that will be able to provide clear evidence on how Maori candidates fare in the examinations. As from 1986 School Certificate results sent to homes will not show results in each examination as a percentage, but will show only which grade out of seven possible grades that the candidate has been awarded. Consequently in future it will be very hard for researchers to make comparisons to show what proportion of candidates pass in each subject, or how the pass rates for Maori candidates compare with those of other candidates. The figures for the 1985 School Certificate examinations show that they and their marking systems have not been changed so as to make the examination system equally fair to both Maori and Pakeha candidates. The examinations still overwhelmingly favour non-Maori candidates:

The table shows that while pass rates for New Zealand candidates as a whole hardly change at all, the pass rates for Maori candidates vary more widely. (This is mainly because they comprise a relatively small group - only 11 %of the New Zealand candidates). Changes in Maori pass rates range from an increase of 5.6% in the proportion passing Geography to a fall of 3.2% in the proportion who passed their English paper. But what has not changed for the Maori candidates is the large gap between their pass rates and the overall pass rates in almost every single subject of the entire School Certificate lisfof subjects. Worsened The overall results for all Maori candidates actually worsened little over a third of the subjects they sat - 34.2% of the examinations. In 1986 the percentage of subjects passed was virtually the same - 34%. But New Zealand candidates as a whole enjoyed a slight improvement in their success rate. Well over half the New

PASS RATES IN THE SIX SUBJECTS WITH ONE THOUSAND OR MORE MAORI CANDIDATES (i.e. per cent of candidates sitting who passed each subject)Subject All NZ Candidates: 1984 1985 Maori: 1984 1985 English 52.4% 52.7%+ 33.1% 29.9%Geography 53.4% 55.2%+ 26.8% 32.4% + Maori 53.1% 54.4%+ 51.8% 55.7%+* Maths 57.9% 49.6%+ 35.5% 36.3% + Science 59.4% 59.4% 35% 35.3% + Typing 48.8% 49.1%+ 34.5% 33%[+pass rate better than 1985; -pass rate lower; *Maori pass rate higher than all NZ Candidates]

Zealand candidates pass the examinations they sit: in 1984 they passed 56.4% of their papers; and in 1985, 57.2%.

While very slightly fewer New Zealand candidates as a whole failed all the subjects they sat in 1985 (a fall from 24.4% to 24.2%), more Maori candidates failed everything. (43.% in 1985, 42.6% in 1984).

The full range of statistics is available from the Department of Education in SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION STATISTICS, 1985. Among other figures in the booklet are the results of the examinations specially designed for the Pacific Islands. Those figures show a pattern of failure of Pacific students by the examinations which differs little from the pattern for Maori candidates.

Failed to respond

The results of the 1985 School Certificate examinations all point in the same direction - despite the ways that Maori groups and other groups have put the case for the examinations to be made fairer for all who sit them, the politicians and the bureaucrats have failed to respond. It is clear that the new grade system which began with the 1986 examinations will simply be another way of disguising the underlying cultural and socio-economic biases of this tax-payer funded system.

But above all the patterns of the 1985 examination statistics show very clearly that the results are not the fault nor the responsibility of the young Maoris who sit these examinations. They are the result of an examination to insist that in order to “succeed” a student must abandon her taha Maori when she enters the examination room.

The Treasury is very fond these days of the phrase “user pays”. In this instance, the Maori user is paying for worse than nothing, is paying for having bright and hopeful youngsters labelled failures.