Some key parts:
A leading education researcher warns new high-stakes NCEA literacy and maths tests could do more harm than good.
From 2026 students would not be allowed an NCEA certificate until they had passed all three tests in reading, writing and maths.
Darr said schools needed other options for assessing literacy and numeracy and meeting the requirements should not be a prerequisite for receiving an NCEA qualification.
Literacy and numeracy could be a separate qualification, or they could be included in the NCEA certificates in the same manner that standards from other subjects were included.
Back in the day, universities had to add in their own requirements on top of NCEA and re-test everyone for literacy.
Looks like its legacy is still going on here.
Basically getting overseas students to demonstrate proficiency through ESOL wasn’t enough because it turned out a significant proportion of NZ native English speakers were coming through NCEA without the language level required for tertiary.