>About the time you read this QA News, the campaign to introduce the public to NCEA will be well under way. We hope you will already be familiar with the colours, slogans and images of the NCEA.

NCEA Communications Project Manager Nicola Meek, the Authority's Communications Manager Bill Lennox and other staff at NZQA have been absorbed in preparations for the campaign since late in 2000.

The aim is to ensure that those most immediately affected by the introduction of NCEA in 2002 will understand how NCEA works and have confidence in it.

"The core booklet covers all of the new system's main features in a way that we hope current year 10 students and their families will be able to take in," says Nicola Meek. "In talking to live audiences about NCEA we discovered that the simplest way to explain the whole system is by working over a sample results notice. So the booklet takes that approach - we have invented a student called Alex and the booklet explains how to read Alex's results notice for English.

"The booklet (much of which is reproduced in this QA News) will be mailed to all 55 000 families of students who will be in year 11 in 2002. They should get it by the end of the June and it will then be available to the general public."

In June a two-week advertising campaign will run in all daily, weekly and community newspapers, and on iwi and Pacific radio.

"The plan is to spin off the booklet, get the core messages out and encourage the general public to find out more. They can do this by asking for a copy of the booklet (via an 0800 telephone line) or going to the new NCEA website," says Nicola Meek.

"The new NCEA website will become the portal to all NCEA information," says Bill Lennox. "Until now the NZQA site has been designed largely for education professionals. But the NCEA part of the site is now divided into two sections: for students, parents and the public, and for teachers, schools and other education professionals. There is some crossover, of course, especially for access to the actual achievement standards, samples of internal assessments and sample exam questions.

"Schools will also be able to download communication material for use with their own communities, including overhead transparencies and text and diagrams for leaflets."

Bill Lennox says employers and staff in tertiary providers are important audiences. "They are also members of the public, of course, so they will be reached by the general campaign, but we will be targeting these groups in the second half of this year. There won't be many school leavers with NCEA before the end of 2003, but understanding and acceptance among employers and tertiary providers is central to broad public confidence."

Nicola Meek says the campaign's dominant image, a large multi-coloured cube, is designed to suggest the NCEA's key features.

"In the NCEA environment, each student's learning programme and each student's set of results will be far more personalised than they are now. The results will be detailed and courses can be varied and flexible. The use of a range of cubes is to reflect this multi-dimensional nature of the NCEA.

"We show a range of young people with their personal cubes. In effect, they are admiring and valuing their personal learning experiences as reflected by their own photos on their cubes. Sprinkled through the text are lines that reinforce this idea: more than a number, from all angles, a clearer picture. All of this is about learning first. NCEA results are a consequence of enhanced learning opportunities."

Māori educators see the introduction of NCEA as an opportunity to further advance the achievements of Māori learners and to advance the status of Māori -specific skills and knowledge. The campaign reflects the bicultural intent of the NCEA. All material, booklets, leaflets and website information, will be produced in both te reo Māori and English. Advertisements will run on all iwi radio stations and in Māori print media.

After June, there will be a more targeted campaign, ensuring that all employers and key national groups have a full appreciation of the NCEA. Communities and regions will be targeted where public surveys indicate a need and younger students and their families will receive information through their schools. Material will also be produced in Pacific and Asian languages and the NCEA website will be updated continuously.

And, of course, for those 55 000 students who will be the first to find out first hand about NCEA, there will be detailed information from NZQA at the beginning of 2002.

	Hon Trevor Mallard

Minister launches campaign

>Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced the commencement of the NCEA information campaign with a visit to students at Wellington Girls' College to show them advance copies of the booklet and explained main features of the new qualification.

Trevor Mallard said there would be a range of NCEA information that will be available for students, families and the public in the next few months.

"By the time students have to choose their courses for 2002, I am confident that students and their families will have a clear understanding of NCEA. The material coming out of NZQA is attractive and accessible. It will be an excellent starting point, from which schools will be able to build confidence in NCEA."

He said that the information highlighted the two most exciting features of NCEA - the excellent student profile shown by the NCEA results notice, and the enhanced flexibility for schools to offer broader and deeper learning for all students.