38789 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Minister of Education

38789 (2025). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Minister of Education: What actions, if any, is the Minister taking to ensure that there is no risk to underserving disabled and neurodiverse students by replacing NCEA with a less flexible system?

Hon Erica Stanford: Consultation on the proposed changes to NCEA is open until 15 September 2025. The intention behind the proposals is to strike a balance between adding more structure to increase the credibility and coherence of the qualifications and retaining some of the advantages of flexibility that work well for disabled and neurodiverse learners. This includes retaining special assessment conditions and continuing to allow learners to complete the qualification over multiple years. As part of the consultation, the Ministry of Education is seeking the public’s views on what additional supports are needed for these learners to successfully gain qualifications under the proposed changes. This is also my response to written parliamentary question 38792 (2025).