A problem with NZQA's systems impacted on this morning's digital NCEA exams, with some students having to switch to paper partway through.
Secondary students sat NCEA Level 2 English and scholarship chemistry exams today, with students and parents telling 1News of website outages, lost exam work and delays in getting substitute materials to continue.
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority said its digital exam platform "experienced issues this morning, related to the transfer of student responses from the exam platform to our marking platform overnight".
Exams began at 9.30am for morning exams, and NZQA said the problem was resolved at 10.35am.
"Derived grades will be available for students who are unable to complete their exam, or whose performance was impaired by the disruption," an NZQA spokesperson said.
NZQA's systems slowed this morning's digital NCEA exams, with some students having to switch to paper. (Source: 1News)
'Students 'badly let down' – Stanford
Caretaker Education Minister Erica Stanford said she was briefed on the issue this morning and met with officials later in the day.
Stanford said she had also received regular updates before the meeting with NZQA this afternoon "to discuss what went wrong and what is being done to put it right".
"Today's disruption to the NCEA Level 2 English exam will have been incredibly frustrating and stressful for students who have worked hard to prepare," she said this evening, adding: "They deserve better."
"My number one concern is that students are treated fairly and not disadvantaged," she said.
Stanford said she had been assured that a plan was in place to ensure no students had been disadvantaged by the issue.
"I made my disappointment and frustration very clear to NZQA. I have also directed them to develop a clear plan of action to ensure this does not happen again, and I expect to receive that plan by tomorrow afternoon."
Stanford said she understood this afternoon's exams were not impacted.
"With no exams scheduled for tomorrow, NZQA has time to thoroughly check and double-check its systems ahead of the next exams," she said.
"Students have been badly let down. They and their families deserve confidence that the systems supporting their exams are reliable and that every student will be treated fairly."
'Wholly unacceptable'
One parent said the disruption was "wholly unacceptable".
"The fact that there's no accommodation for time or a resit opportunity when it's a system issue is completely unfair to the kids who have worked hard to prepare for these exams."
Another who reached out to 1News said her daughter was "completely beside herself".
She said 45 minutes into the exam, "all content was lost by most students in her class", and they had to complete their exams on paper with no extra time.
"My daughter is now concerned that she may have not even passed the exam, as it went so poorly after the stress of losing all of her content, then the uncertainty of whether they were going to have to continue on paper or not, and then the reduced time provided."
Another said her daughter came home in tears, having lost 35 minutes of work.
"Her results are vital as she wants to go to the US to study. This is utterly appalling and backwards for NZ."
The disruption comes a day after students at Christchurch’s St Andrew’s College experienced problems with their digital exams, though NZQA believed this was caused by a local network issue.
There are 127 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exam sessions this year, with exams concluding on the morning of December 4.
SHARE ME