Providers and partners

English language schools quality assurance

Aspects of quality assurance of schools teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) have been clarified by arrangements agreed between NZQA and English New Zealand.

The arrangements apply, as appropriate, to both EFL schools and ‘hybrid’ private training establishments that are part EFL and part vocational in character.

The arrangements recognise the distinctive contribution of EFL schools and are intended to strengthen NZQA’s ability to carry out its quality assurance responsibilities credibly and effectively in this part of the sector. They do not, however, fundamentally change the policy intent of evaluative quality assurance in general, or external evaluation and review (EER) in particular.

There are four key aspects to the arrangements. The first two apply to all EFL and ‘hybrid’ schools; the latter two apply only to member schools of English New Zealand:

Clarification of the use of NZQA outcome indicators in EFL schools.
Clarification of what constitutes reasonable expectations for assessment practice in EFL schools and how achievement data in the sector might reasonably be identified and interpreted.
Recognition that English New Zealand’s periodic audits constitute an input into those schools’ self-assessment, and that the resulting audit reports should inform the EER process of those schools.
Involvement of NZQA evaluators and English New Zealand auditors in a selection of each other’s training so that English New Zealand auditors are familiar with the expectations for evaluative quality assurance and NZQA evaluators are familiar with the English New Zealand perspective on quality assurance.

Details of the understanding are outlined in External Quality Assurance of English Foreign Language Provision in Private Training Establishments (PDF, 76KB).

Please direct any queries or requests for further information by email to eer@nzqa.govt.nz.