Students who are sick during NCEA exams will need to apply for a derived grade. Photo: 123RF
Some students with Covid-19 are still turning up to sit their NCEA exams.
There is no longer mandatory isolation after a positive test for Covid - just the recommendation to stay home for five days.
'They really want to show up to exams and put their best foot forward'- Greg Pierce
Auckland Secondary Principals Association president and Orewa College principal Greg Pierce told Checkpoint's Lisa Owen they had noticed more students wearing masks in the run-up to the NCEA exams, which started on 6 November.
However, it was unclear whether they were ill, or just protecting themselves from getting sick.
"Students will wear a mask but maybe not test as rigorously as they used to (for Covid). They're taking sensible precautions but not testing."
Principals believed this was a positive action to take, he said.
"They've had three years of Covid disruption, weather events, industrial action... and they really want to show up to exams and put their best foot forward, because they've got an opportunity to do that."
It was not possible to monitor students who did turn up for symptoms or enforce isolation, he said.
"The reality is we've got 300 students - for example, at (Orewa) College - turning up for a Level 1 NCEA English exam. (To go) through (each of) those students who are wearing a mask, when we haven't got any prior information - it's just not practical.
"We rely on families and the students making sensible choices, and if they are too ill, they can go through the derived grade process."
Derived grades were possible if students had results from mid-year examinations and had a medical certificate for illness during the NCEA exams, but this was not possible for students sitting scholarship exams.
"Some students are probably turning up to (scholarship) exams not feeling 100 percent and perhaps not testing for Covid, because they want that opportunity to test themselves academically for what they've been preparing for years, and produce the best result they can, and you can understand that."
Of around 800 senior students at Orewa College, only seven applications for derived grades had been submitted.