Chief Executive's Foreword

In this issue of QA News we have stories about excellence from both teachers and students.

The award ceremony for the inaugural Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards were held last month. It was rewarding for NZQA to have a part to play in organising these awards which support New Zealand's very talented tertiary sector. We congratulate all those who won awards and those who were nominated by their institutions.

NZQA is also very proud of the Top Art 2002 exhibition, which is currently touring the country. As usual there are some outstanding pieces and it is well worth getting along to the exhibition to see the raw talent present in our secondary school art classes. Top Art is running for the third time this year and we continue to get very positive feedback about the benefits of putting on this exhibition. Both teachers and students find it useful to see first hand the sort of standard that must be achieved to attain excellence in Art. You can preview some of the work in this issue (click here).

I believe it is important for NZQA to continue to support learning in constructive and tangible ways. Our core business is running national qualifications and maintaining quality, but supporting the schools and providers who are running these qualifications is part of our vision of having world-class qualifications for all.

This ethos can be seen in the way we have restructured the organisation and within the new teams we have developed. The new Schools Liaison team has been set up specifically to provide one-on-one support, advice and guidance to secondary schools. Each School Relationship Manager has responsibility for schools throughout a region. The team is currently working on building relationships with principals and head teachers, and putting a "face" to NZQA as an organisation.

A similar programme of relationship building and one-on-one support has been operating for over a year in the Māori Provider Development and Support unit at NZQA. This team has a group of regional facilitators who, like the School Relationship Managers, are "on the road" most of the time, visiting private training establishments and assisting them with their quality management processes. Feedback about the increased level of support has been very positive.

There are more than 26,000 students sitting University Bursaries in 2002. NZQA is responsible for ensuring that examination papers are set and marked, results are processed correctly and results notices and certificates are issued. However we also want students to be informed and confident about the process. Which is why secondary students are about to receive the 2002 information booklet on University Entrance, Bursaries and Scholarships Examination. The booklet takes students and their parents through some of the most frequently asked questions about the examination process.

These are just some of the ways in which we are keeping in touch with and supporting those who use our services.

In this QA News we have included a very short reader survey which we would like you to fill out. It will help us to provide the sort of information you want to read about. Reader survey form

Thank you.

Karen Van Rooyen