Professional Disobedience and the Future of NCEA: Rethinking the Gates of Learning

by Rebecca Thomas (but inspired by Welby Ings)

“How you design those gates that our students walk through is very important. They have to be able to walk through them and be the best version of themselves before they go out into the world.” — Welby Ings

I took comfort hearing Welby Ings speak again — a steady voice amidst the political circus and the persistent headlines cheering for the government. In a week where politicians toured schools and promised “world class” qualifications, Welby reminded us of something quieter, deeper, and far more urgent — the human design of education.

In all the madness, his words stayed with me. I hope they stay with you, too.

Let’s not get distracted by the shimmer of reform-speak — “world class,” “AI-enhanced marking,” “future-ready.” We’ve heard them before.

Yawn.

But what Welby offered wasn’t a new system. It was a reminder of our soul.

No press conference will say:

'Our education system isn’t failing because of teachers.

It’s struggling under policy built on panic — not compassion.'

A World Class System for Whom?

While Erica Stanford and Christopher Luxon speak of certificates, standardisation, and grading A–E, there’s a deeper question our educators are crying out to be answered: what happens to the learners who don’t match the template? What about the young person who learns through storytelling, not bullet points? What about those who excel in movement, relationality, or lived experience?

None of us want or need a ‘qualification system that creates success atop the debris of someone else’s failure’.

Welby’s words are both a warning and a balm: “We don’t want to die in an echo chamber.”

Yet when political answers are rooted in economic performance, not community wellbeing, that’s exactly what we’re building — an education system that reflects the narrow priorities of a few, not the aspirations of the many.

We keep designing systems that reward the already successful and punish those facing barriers we refuse to name.

Grading, ranking, and measuring in fixed ways — we all know these don’t celebrate diversity, they suppress it. A relational understanding of knowledge, one that recognises mātauranga Māori and collective ways of knowing, is not a ‘nice to have’ — it’s essential.

This is not about resisting change. This is about refusing shallow change that sounds modern while replicating the same tired inequities.

On Professional Disobedience

Our teachers know this. 

They see it daily. 

And many are quietly engaging in professional disobedience — holding space for compassion, connection, and curiosity, even when the system demands compliance.

The strongest systems are not those with the shiniest certificates. They are the ones that lift the weakest, honour every learner, and build communities that can hold difference.

Dear Politicians, Let’s Talk. Really Talk.

You say you want feedback. 

We’ve been giving it. 

For ages.

Educators are ready for genuine, sophisticated debate — but are our politicians?

You cannot build policy from panic and expect peace. 

You cannot mark creativity with AI and call it progress. 

And you cannot promise equity while deepening standardisation.

The Real World Class Standard

A world class system isn't defined by grades A to E. It’s defined by the humanity it cultivates, the communities it strengthens, and the young people it empowers to build not just a future — but a fair one.

So here’s our question back to you:

Will the new gates you’re building let all our students through — or just the ones that already fit the mould?

Because our young people deserve more than “world class.” 

They deserve deeply human. 

They deserve fair. 

They deserve us — fully present, fully caring, and fiercely uncompromising.

And that means we start growing them.