A professor says he is in favour of using spellcheck to tackle New Zealand's low pass rates for students in literacy and numeracy tests.
According to RNZ, officials were worried by the high failure rates of New Zealand students after a pilot test in the middle of 2022, which had pass rates of 34 percent in writing, 56 percent in maths and 64 percent in reading.
RNZ reported the tests would become a compulsory part of NCEA in 2024 and students will need to pass all three assessments before they are awarded an NCEA qualification.
On Wednesday, Professor Peter Lineham told AM he was "in favour" of students using spellcheck.
"I am quite in favour of using spellcheck because in practice and people's life, these days you use spellcheck all the time," he told AM.
"Even though it seems shameful that people don't know how to spell, they still need to be able to recognise which is the right word."
He said people still need to use critical thinking to be able to differentiate between which is the right and wrong answer.
Political commentator Trish Sherson told AM she agreed with Prof Lineham because "there are a lot of kids who learn in different ways and struggle with exams and things like that."
Sherson also said students should have a basic understanding of how to spell correctly.
"If you haven't learnt spelling, it's very hard as a building block to have a good grasp of basic literacy reading and writing."
Watch the full AM panel above.
