A new notifications gateway being trialled for 2024 aims to make it easier for schools and kura to tell NZQA about students who need Special Assessment Conditions (SAC).
SAC provide students who have a specific permanent or long-term sensory, physical, medical or learning difficulty with a fair opportunity to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in NCEA and NZ Scholarship assessments.
SAC can include students having access to enlarged or braille papers, readers and/or writers, breaks during an assessment to take medication, or using a computer to type responses.
“The notifications gateway aims to make NCEA more accessible for students who need Special Assessment Conditions – supporting one of the seven key areas of the NCEA Changes announced in 2020,” says Jann Marshall, NZQA Deputy Chief Executive, Assessment.
“The notifications gateway will reduce the workload for schools as they will not need to submit evidence in support of SAC applications to NZQA if this gateway is used,” Jann Marshall says.
NZQA will audit the use of the notifications gateway to ensure students’ needs are being appropriately met, and access to the gateway can be restricted if required.
The trial notifications gateway will sit alongside the existing approvals gateway for students attempting NCEA Level 1 in 2024, giving schools and kura the option to inform NZQA of the support needed, rather than applying for NZQA permission.
The current Approvals Gateway can still be used for any applications at the school’s discretion and is still the way schools will make new applications at Levels 2 and 3.
“In addition to this trial, the embedding of Universal Design principles in assessments will mean that more students will be able to access assessments without the need for SAC. This will normalise their experience of assessment, instead of requiring them to be singled out for special attention,” Jann Marshall says.