Te Tiro Hou meets the Green Paper: Where to from here in secondary school qualifications?

This article outlines the central conclusions of Te Tiro Hou, the Qualifications Framework Inquiry commissioned by the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association and considers the likely impact on secondary school qualifications of the government's Green Paper on the National Qualifications Framework. It endorses the continued development of standards-based assessment but recommends changes to the unit standard approach. It does not support the Green Paper's proposal for a deregulated qualifications market but advocates a nationally co-ordinated approach to qualifications, with a single major qualification at each level. Priority should be given to the final two years of schooling, with a modified form of unit standards as the sole Year 12 qualification and a model which co-ordinates Bursary with unit standards in Year 13. Year 11 would be the final year of general education, with no need for most students to seek formal qualifications.