Chief Executive's Foreword

January's successful delivery of results to the first 60,000 NCEA learners was a real milestone for the New Zealand education sector. I feel very proud of everyone involved here at NZQA for contributing to the successful implementation of the new system. For many of our staff it was the culmination of more than a decade's work.

The results were very positively received by students, teachers, and others in the sector. The detail offered by the NCEA interim result notices has also been praised for giving a much clearer picture of what students in New Zealand are capable of achieving (click here for more on this).

As this is the first issue of QA News for 2003, it is timely for me to look forward at what this year holds.

The importance of the NZQA website has really stood out over the past month, delivering eagerly anticipated secondary and tertiary results to learners and providers across the country. On the NCEA Results page (and linked pages) we now deliver a huge amount of information to individuals, schools and the public.

www.nzqa.govt.nz is one of New Zealand's largest and most frequently used websites. We receive positive feedback from most of our users about the services and information we offer online, but we plan to do much better.

By the end of February we'll be launching a redesigned NZQA website. For the past year we have been working hard on restructuring existing material and developing new material for the new site, which is scheduled to go live within the next month. It will feature, among other things:

This year we can look forward to the implementation of the New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications. By the middle of 2003 a new Register website will be up that will enable the public to view all qualifications quality assured in this country, and compare them.

NZQA is committed to providing excellence to learners through continuous improvement to our overarching quality assurance role. This year we will be working more closely with those organisations that we delegate quality assurance roles to, such as the Association of Polytechnics and the Association of Colleges of Education, to ensure that we are all meeting the appropriate standards. This will involve a review of the standards that we set and a programme of ensuring those standards are met.

Andrew West formally resigned his position as CEO of NZQA as of December last year. I consider it a privilege to have worked with him. Andy left a legacy of commitment and achievement, and above all a passion for educational excellence. We wish him well in his new role as head of the Tertiary Education Commission and look forward to the work our two agencies will do together this year. The position of CEO, NZQA will be advertised early this year.

I wish all of you good luck with your endeavours for 2003.

Karen Van Rooyen