The New Zealand Initiative has revealed disastrously high failure rates in a small-scale trial-run of critical new NCEA tests.
Two-thirds of the 550 teens who sat the writing test failed it, while a third failed the reading and maths tests.
The think tank says the tests' introduction in 2024 should be delayed, but teachers and the Education Ministry say the results of last year's trial are not representative.
Education correspondent John Gerritsen reports.
