Students could soon be able to sit school assessments when they are ready, instead of having to wait for the end of year final exam period.

As part of its Future State project, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority is looking at developing a vision to guide the system through the next decade of education.

Tauranga Boys' College student Daniel Hines says completing online exams when he is ready will mean less pressure at the end of year.

In a speech made to secondary principals, New Zealand Qualifications Authority chief executive Karen Poutasi called the plans for online exams a 'significant cultural shift for New Zealand.”

'A lot more investigative work needs to be undertaken before our actual plans and timelines are finalised but we are reasonably confident that we can reach a position within eight years where most students will be sitting examinations using a digital device.”

Western Bay of Plenty Post Primary Teachers' Association regional chair Graeme Bridge supports the idea of online exams, but is unsure on whether Bay of Plenty schools are ready for the change yet.

'There's a lot of good things around it actually, putting stuff on line, there's no question about that. It's just I don't know if we're actually ready for it yet.

'I'm not sure if the time frame is actually long enough to actually imbed a lot of stuff to trial it out yet either. There's a lot of unknowns in there.”

Graeme says students and teachers will need to work together if plans for online assessments are to work effectively.

'One issue is the fact that you've got an aging teaching population that are not overly technically savvy and you've also got a younger generation which is technically savvy.

'So there's a bit of a miss-match in there. There will have to be a lot of education actually put in place for teachers and infrastructure.”

The idea has made the grade with Tauranga Boys' College year 12 student Daniel Hines.

Daniel says the benefits of choosing to complete online exams when he is ready will result in less pressure at the end of the school year.

'I think it would be easier, in some ways it takes the pressure off us doing them all at the end of the year.

'I could do them when I feel ready.”

Although Daniel says completing online exams at home would be more relaxing he says students may be tempted to cheat.

'I think it would be more relaxed, a lot of people these days get freaked out when sitting down in the exam room with the papers ready.

'(But) if they were done online at home people could cheat and also there is nothing stopping people from cheating at school. As where the traditional ways you can only write on the exam paper provided.”

Tauranga Girls' College Year 12 student Prue Milbank understands why students would enjoy taking online exams but would prefer to take the exam with the rest of her school mates.

'I like knowing the date of an exam and working towards that, and knowing how much time I have to revise so I'll feel ready on that day.

'But I think if there was the option to take exams on the computer at school that would be something I would prefer as it would be easier for subjects like English when writing essays.

'I think there would be a lot of temptation for people to cheat and it would be very easy for them, unless some sort of precaution was put up to stop that, which might be hard to set up.”