Pupils sit exam unaware it was canned due to earthquake

Many Wellington secondary students have been unable to do their NCEA exams today as their schools are closed following the earthquake.

High school pupils in Palmerston North sat through an hour of a history exam before learning it had been postponed due to the North Canterbury earthquake.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has been criticised for how it communicated its decision to postpone  a level 3 scholarship history exam.

A postponement notice was posted online at 8.55am Monday, but some schools, including Palmerston North Girls' High School (PNGHS), were not informed directly until an hour after the 9.30am exam had started.

Murray Wilson/ Fairfax NZ.

Palmerston North Girls' High School pupil Ruth Wright is frustrated she worked for an hour on her exam paper before finding out it would count for nothing.

PNGHS pupil Ruth Wright was frustrated after sitting a third of the three-hour exam.

READ MORE: * Severe 7.5 quake in North Canterbury* Earthquake: Schools, universities closed, exams disrupted* Students shown papers for Scholarship exam cancelled by quake 

She was one of seven pupils at the school who began the exam before it was postponed due to the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Sunday night.

"We'd done an hour's worth of work that will be worth nothing.

"It was kind of disappointing. This was a feeling shared by all the students," Wright said.

If NZQA had to replace the entire exam, days of study would have been "wasted".

Wright's mother Deborah Russell said a lack of communication from NZQA to the school was to blame.

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"What a stuff up. It's absolutely NZQA's fault."

Russell said NZQA's deputy chief executive was on the radio minutes before the exam was scheduled to start, saying every exam was planned to go ahead.

"It wasn't until just before 9am that they called it off."

Russell was concerned NZQA may create a new exam as several students had already seen the exam paper.

The girls worked hard so hopefully they'll have the opportunity to sit a similar exam, she said

PNGHS principal Karene Biggs said she was unaware of the online postponement notice and did not receive an email on time to notify students.

However, Biggs said it was not NZQA's fault.

"You've got to keep it in perspective," she said. "We are dealing with a serious issue. It was a major earthquake.

"No one got killed in the exam, it is what it is," she said.

Some NZQA staff had left work computers at the office, and after the earthquake could not access email accounts from their homes to contact all affected schools, Biggs said.

The pupils would bounce back from this and get the opportunity to resit the exam, Biggs said.

An NZQA representative said the scholarship exams had been postponed as they did not fall under the emergency derived grades process.

This was implemented for those teenagers who could not sit NCEA exams due to the earthquake.

"We're making the best decisions as quickly as we can. There's a much smaller number of students it affects."

About 1000 pupils were to sit the history exam and just over 1200 were to sit a scholarship chemistry exam this afternoon.

Palmerston North Boys High School (PNBHS) deputy rector Gerard Atkin said at first the school received a cancellation message from NZQA prior to the start of the exam, and it was soon changed to a postponement.

It was lucky the students hadn't started the exam, he said.

There were 12 students scheduled to sit the history exam and another 13 for a scholarship chemistry exam in the afternoon, Atkin said.

He supported a new history exam being made.

"For scholarships to be credible it is essential that no students are either advantaged or disadvantaged. Rewriting the examination will ensure this is the case."

NZQA did not say when the exams would be scheduled or whether the history exam would be changed.

 - Stuff

Source: Pupils sit exam unaware it was canned due to earthquake