> SPEECH BY JOHN MORRIS

It is a great pleasure to welcome everyone here this evening for this celebration of academic excellence in a global context. I am particularly delighted to welcome Dr Kevin Stannard from Cambridge Assessment as our special guest. Dr Stannard is Director of Curriculum at CIE and has become a regular visitor to these shores since he began at CIE two and a half years ago.

2007 has been another year of growth and expansion with a number of well regarded schools coming on board with CIE qualifications. Most recently Takapuna Grammar School and Avondale College, both very successful schools, have signed on for CIE and we are delighted to welcome them to the CIE family. Can I say how fantastic it is to see smaller schools like Carey College and St Dominics (Wanganui) featuring in this Prize Giving tonight.

The list of schools now offering CIE qualifications reads very impressively. Without exception all are strong academic schools with a desire to extend their students and challenge them to be the best they can be. The results achieved last year by students from the participating schools speaks volumes for the calibre of these young men and women and also attests to the high quality teaching that goes on in these schools.

The 50+ schools now involved in CIE have also shown themselves to be forward thinking and progressive, indeed leaders in this area of school life. They have recognised that schools can no longer be parochial or insular about their curricula or about the performance levels of their students. In the future it is clear that our students will find themselves in an international workplace alongside of, or in competition with, people from neighbouring countries, and where the jobs themselves (and the existence of those jobs) depends on international rather than national conditions. Their credentials simply had to have international currency.

These same schools have also realised that it is not good enough for students to compare their performances only against those students in the same year, in the same city, province or country. The current generation of students must learn to become global citizens through an education and a curricula that is self-consciously international.

In effect all of the CIE schools in NZ are at the leading edge of educational globalisation in NZ, and that is a very exciting thought.

I remember eight years ago initiating, with the support of the AGS Board, a review of international qualifications that Auckland Grammar School could perhaps get involved in because we were disappointed with what was going on in New Zealand with the impending abolition of School Certificate and University Bursary and Scholarship exams.

After much research of a range of different qualifications including the IB, we decided to adopt the Cambridge International Examinations.
At the time this decision was met with vehement opposition from the Government, Ministry and a number of other schools.

It is an intriguing point that three significant other Auckland schools who were most vociferous in their opposition to international examinations at that time have now decided 7 years later that maybe we did have it right, as they have all announced, between clenched teeth, that they will be offering international qualifications beginning over the next few years.

My point is that schools that have chosen to offer CIE qualifications have shown vision and a non-conformist streak in not following education fads and bandwagons unquestioningly by going along with an imposed, flawed standards-based assessment model; rather they have shown they are progressive schools that are prepared to break the mould, to challenge the entrenched liberal philosophy of the Ministry of Education and NZQA, to take the criticism of uninformed bureaucrats, all in the interests of the boys and girls of their Schools.


The success of CIE in New Zealand is down to many factors, but I would like to thank a number of people in this regard.
Last year Jan Kerr took up the role of part time Administrator for the Association and has done a fine job in keeping schools informed and in organising and administering the quite complex demands of the Association and of CIE in UK. I would like to thank Jan for her huge contribution and for her initiative and new ideas that she has brought to the position.

Simon Higgins is the CIE rep in new Zealand and he has forged an excellent working relationship with Jan and I know he feels very comfortable in his role, and we are delighted to have him supporting our own home grown Association and smoothing the way for us in our ongoing negotiations with CIE.

The Board of ACSNZ meets regularly and does a great job in policy setting and general governance. As Chairman I am indebted to Jan, Roy Kelley, Simon Peek and Clarence van der Wel for their support and dedication to the cause.

The Academic Committee led by Mark Vella and ably supported by Rhys Davies, Richard Stead, Jackie White and Nathan Villars has also done great work and my thanks to you all.

Interest continues to grow in CIE as an alternative qualification and we can expect further growth but perhaps not quite a rapid as over the last two years. I am very proud though that CIE is now regarded as a credible and viable qualification by all the tertiary institutions and is very much a significant part of the New Zealand qualifications framework.

CIE are of course constantly improving their services to us and we expect that to continue. One of the great strengths we have found in CIE is the flexibility of their staff, the preparedness of the organisation to do their best for us and their responsiveness to our requests and suggestions. All that is much appreciated and we look forward to a continuation of that philosophy.

My congratulations to those high achievers who will receive awards this evening, and to their schools who have prepared them so well for the exams. Regardless of what you might hear from some sources, great teachers do make a difference and I would like to thank all those many great and inspirational teachers in all our schools who make a difference to their students and who inspire and motivate them to reach such great heights of scholarship as evidenced here tonight.

John Morris
Chairperson
ACSNZ