Primary and intermediate school principals are fighting a proposal to let children as young as 11 sit new high-stakes NCEA tests in literacy and numeracy.
Students will have to pass the externally-assessed standards before they can get any level of the NCEA and the Education Ministry is asking if children should be allowed to sit them as early as year seven.
The government is introducing the requirement because 40 percent of young people who get level two of the NCEA aren't meeting basic literacy and numeracy standards. RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen reports.
