Alarm bells and positives.

That's how Rotorua Boys' High School principal Chris Grinter has reacted to the Government's decision to scrap NCEA and scholarship fees.

The school is awaiting the full implications of last week's announcement to digest the changes and lookout for incentives.

He says he also feels the reduction in credits would ease the burden on teaching staff.

'The proposed changes present some positives for the students of Rotorua Boys' High School.

'Clearly the ‘no fees' will be helpful to families, although we feel that fees have never really denied entry to NCEA for our students.

'Families have always been very supportive.

But not charging for scholarship would certainly be an incentive for more to enter this qualification, says Chris.

'The school is also comfortable with each NCEA Year Level having just the 60 credits without any carry over and perhaps, with fewer assessments, that will reduce workload for teaching staff.

'At the same time, we have some anxiety over the fact that there will be fewer assessments and more external assessment and this may disadvantage the students of our school who currently perform well given the fact that we can chunk courses and assessments (which) improves engagement.

'With smaller groups of credits available for an assessment, a poor performance along the way can be compensated for by a better performance in a later assessment.”

With fewer assessments this may not be the case, he says. The school would be disappointed if students reach a point of no return earlier in their years achievement than is currently the case.

'We provide significant support to students to keep them on task and building their credits.

'In our school, which is heavily Māori, we feel being able to build achievement with a series of smaller steps works better and improves engagement when compared to a smaller number of bigger steps.

'Our boys like the process of credit accumulation and chasing endorsements and we find that this has supported both retention and engagement.

'In summary, a number of positives but also one or two alarm bells and we will need to digest further the full package of changes and also guard against any disincentives to remain engaged and successfully achieving at high school.”