Address to the Top Scholars Ceremony at Government House, 2007

Speech notes for an address to the Top Scholars Ceremony at Government House, 4 May 2007, by Sue Suckling, Chair NZQA.

4 May 2007

Good afternoon.

My name is Sue Suckling and I have the privilege of being the Chair of the Board of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

Before I go any further I would like to thank His Excellency The Honourable Anand Satyanand, and her Excellency Mrs Susan Satyanand for hosting this occasion. It is always a pleasure to be able to come to this wonderful house and have our students recognised by the Queen's representative.

These events show me just how the students that NZQA serves are continuing to excel. I am humbled when I consider the achievement and the ability of the 32 Top Scholars we are going to formally acknowledge today.

Our Top Scholars are really some our key customers. You are one of the reasons NZQA exists and the reason that I jump out of bed each day! Our job is to ensure that your learning and achievements can be recognised in a robust way and this is what Scholarship does.

One of the responsibilities of NZQA is implementing the Scholarship exams, AND the exams you sat last year are the most challenging in New Zealand. They designed to be that way. The whole point of these exams is to push students to excellence.

Excellence in your areas of study,
excellence in the way you think -
AND you hold the opportunity in your hands to choose excellence in your future pursuits.

To all of you here today -

You WILL make a difference. You CAN make the world a better place.

You ARE our Top Scholars

NZQA is an organisation that is charged with not only running the secondary assessment system, including scholarship, but also maintaining quality standards across the tertiary sector and looking after the National Qualifications Framework. One of our statutory roles is also to ensure that New Zealand's national qualifications are recognised overseas.

Because of what we do, we are always going to be talked about. We are always going to be in the media. To me this shows me that what we do is important to New Zealanders.

The fact that for another year, the Scholarship exams have successfully offered students the opportunity to push themselves is a credit to everyone who has been involved. I am proud of the huge amount of work which occurs year round, by the hundreds of people involved, to make Scholarship successful.

Let me give you some numbers. In 2006, over 7,700 students entered Scholarship exams. Approximately 200 dedicated staff and makers drove this Scholarship process. This excludes the numerous people who play a role in running the exams themselves.

Many of them entered more than just one. From those, 1,906 will receive awards to the value of $3.2million over the next three years. That is an achievement to be proud of.

However, I am even more proud of the students here today. You have driven yourselves to become the best in your subjects. And some of you have become the best across a wide range of subjects. That takes extraordinary effort, and a willingness to forge your own unique way through the world of learning, and in New Zealand.

It was the late Michael King who stated, and I quote;

"if we wish to present ourselves to the wider world as New Zealanders then we must be able to listen to our own voices, and trace our own footsteps. We must have our own heroes and heroines inspire us; we must persist with building our won culture with the ingredients close to hand and not import theses ingredients ready made from abroad."

Now I have seen some of the art and literature that students across the country have created in their school time. And I can tell you that it has a voice that is distinct. And I am sure that some of you gathered here will become our own heroes or heroines and leaders in the future.

My background over the past years is in business. I've worked for companies large and small, sat on boards, and been a director.

The one common ingredient I have looked for in all these roles is leadership.

And that doesn't mean simply being the best at something. If I may borrow from a well-known company - and please excuse the grammar -

Leadership requires an ability to "think different" -

Leadership also requires people to synthesise many different sources of information and put down that information in a way that is readily understandable.

I know that the Scholarship exams called on you to do just that.

Finally, I think each of you will owe a debt to your heroes and heroines; your teachers, schools and families. Everyone has stories or memories of teachers who pushed them to succeed or excel. I can recall my English teacher who encouraged me to leave school at the end of the Sixth form year to go to university telling me I would be the best thing I could do - her actual words were that I would EAT it. And these words gave me the courage to do just that!

So I say - let us celebrate our home-grown heroes. Let's celebrate our uniquely New Zealand system. I am sure these awards are the first steps in what will be a successful lifelong journey of learning for you all.

Congratulations to all of you.

Thank you.