WelCom June 2018:
NZQA’s biennial review of Scholarship, says Latin and Sculpture could be dropped because of a lack of students.
It has also suggested that a new subject, Religious Studies, be included for the first time.
The Qualifications Authority said one of the major reasons it is consulting on removing Latin and Sculpture from Scholarship is because falling numbers of students have made it increasingly difficult to find a sufficient pool of independent and qualified assessors.
NZQA said 23 students sat Scholarship Latin last year and 20 the year before that, while Sculpture had 27 candidates last year and 28 in 2016.
Colin MacLeod from the Religious Studies Teachers Association said about 17,000 students took Religious Studies each year, including 5000 at senior level. He did not know how many would go for scholarship exams in the subject, but it was only fair that they had the option.
The lack of a scholarship exam in Religious Studies was a remnant of the scepticism that accompanied the subject’s inclusion in the NCEA, he said. People had wrongly assumed the subject was about indoctrination, rather than about critical studies.
Consultation on the proposed changes would close on 22 June.