The Ministry of Education is so concerned with fail rates in proposed literacy and numeracy exams, they've asked the Qualifications Authority to allow students to use spell check during testing.
A pilot run in the middle of last year with mostly Year 10 students had pass rates of 34 percent in writing, 56 percent in maths, and 64 percent in reading.
The Ministry and the NZQA are at loggerheads over the high failure rates, with the Authority refusing to budge on how it plans to test children.
Education Minister Jan Tinetti spoke to Guyon Espiner.
