NZQA apologises for exam disruptions, offers paper back-ups

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Students sitting NCEA exams this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will have access to paper back-ups after a major online exam outage caused problems last week. Students sitting…

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority will cover the costs to schools of printing papers for other exams held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Photo / Viktor Cap, Deposit Photos

Students sitting NCEA exams this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will have access to paper back-ups after a major online exam outage caused problems last week.

Students sitting Level 2 English last Wednesday lost their work during an online outage, causing significant stress as some lost entire essays.

New Zealand’s biggest secondary school, Rangitoto College, has told its students they will have paper copies of exams and students will be able to choose to sit their exams either digitally or on paper.

All students sitting NCEA Level 1 English, the largest exam of the year with about 41,000 entries, will have access to a paper exam, New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) chief executive Christian Hawkesby said.

The NZQA will cover the costs to schools of printing papers for other exams held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hawkesby said the agency was continuing work on its digital assessment platform to prevent further disruption when exams resume next week.

He said the NZQA would be reviewing marking decisions to make sure appropriate flexibility can be applied and schools can continue providing derived grades for students where they have evidence of what students know.

Hawkesby said the agency was working closely with its IT provider and had undertaken extensive testing throughout the weekend.

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