NCEA exam updates through Twitter

Secondary students sitting exams this year will have even less of an excuse for being late as the education ministry takes to Twitter to keep them updated.

Twitter is a micro-messaging service which lets people see live updates in short messages from people or organisations they are "following".

The 140,000 students sitting NCEA this year can sign up online and receive updates on exam times and rules as well as alerts about local traffic problems to ensure the students are able to arrive on time.

NZQA deputy chief executive of qualifications Bali Haque said the messages, sent in plain English and not text-speak, were one of a number of ways for students to keep informed. Other ways include the NZQA website, nzqa.govt.nz

"We'd like candidates to be as prepared as possible before exams. We want to remind candidates of exam times and adding Twitter to our communications options will also be useful if we need to alert candidates in particular areas of issues such as traffic congestion. 

Messages will not be sent during exam sessions, he said.  Candidates will not be able to send messages to NZQA via Twitter.

NCEA exams run from November 14 to December 4.

- © Fairfax NZ News