Dunedin, July 29 – Otago University’s Educational Assessment Research Unit has been awarded a $9.9 million research grant, one of the biggest ever received by the university.
The Ministry of Education grant will enable the unit to continue its annual monitoring of student achievement in primary and intermediate schools.
The new funds are to be provided over four years, beginning in 1999.
The unit is contracted by the ministry to conduct The National Education Monitoring Project, which assesses the educational skills, knowledge and attitudes of 3000 pupils from years four and eight (standard two and form two) throughout the country.
The unit was established in 1994, and has operated on an initial $7.74 million ministry contract which ends next year.
The unit has nine full-time staff and employs another 300 on a part-time basis annually.
Unit co-director Terry Crooks said it was undertaking the first systematic national monitoring work of its kind in New Zealand.
The project aimed to provide analysis of the effects of curriculum and resource changes and to help teachers and schools better identify educational needs and make improvements.
NZPA ODT gp mel 29/07/97 21-08NZ
