New Zealand to Return to Marking ABCs With As, Bs and Cs

NZ is abandoning the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and going back to grades and percentages to chart student progress.

Taking short constructive breaks while reading a textbook—to jot down questions, for example—every 15 minutes or so amplifies learning and retention. Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

New Zealand is abandoning its National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)—a complex system which awards “credits” for even simple tasks—and returning to marking students out of 100, with grades it says will “make sense to parents,” like A, B, C, D, and E.

The changes were announced today by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford.