NCEA Level 1 exams 'a form of crowd control'

A ministerial advisory group has suggested dropping exams for level 1 of the NCEA and halving the number of credits needed to get the qualification. It also wants to raise the standard of literacy and numeracy needed to get the qualification and and abolish the annual fee for sitting exams. The proposals are so-called Big Ideas aimed at improving the qualification which was introduced in 2002. Our education correspondent John Gerritsen has been reading the plans.