Students were forced to switch from digital to handwritten NCEA examinations on Thursday morning after a technical failure disrupted the national assessment platform.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) confirmed its digital examination system experienced problems, with some students unable to complete their assessments online.

A Christchurch mother said her 16-year-old son was among students left waiting for about an hour while staff tried unsuccessfully to load an English examination onto their laptops.

“My son went to English this morning and they all filed into the exam room, and it took an hour for them to try and load the exam onto the laptops,” she told chrislynchmedia.com.

“They couldn’t load it, couldn’t load it, and apparently it happened nationwide throughout the country.”

Her son eventually had to complete his essay by hand, despite preparing to sit the examination digitally.

An NZQA spokesperson told chrislynchmedia.com the disruption was linked to the transfer of student responses between its examination and marking platforms overnight.

“Our digital exam platform experienced issues this morning, related to the transfer of student responses from the exam platform to our marking platform overnight.”

Schools were advised that students who could continue digitally should do so, while those unable to access the system were moved to paper examinations where possible.

NZQA said the problem was resolved at 10.35am.

“Derived grades will be available for students who are unable to complete their exam, or whose performance was impaired by the disruption.”

Schools were also instructed to give students additional time to complete their examinations, reflecting the length of the disruption they experienced.

The Christchurch mother questioned whether students accustomed to typing their assessments would be disadvantaged by suddenly having to write lengthy answers by hand.

“You could imagine a 16-year-old boy. Their handwriting is pretty appalling because they’re used to being on technology.”

She described the situation as “shocking” and said she was furious about the disruption.

Her son was aiming for top marks, and she feared the disruption could jeopardise his chances.

“He wants Excellence because he wants a really good career, and I’m just feeling really furious about it.”

The mother said parents had already received an email from her son’s school principal acknowledging the situation.

She also raised concerns about reports of examination problems at St Andrew’s College on Wednesday.

However, NZQA said the two incidents were unrelated.

“This is unrelated to the issue experienced at St Andrew’s College yesterday, which we understand was a local network issue.”

NZQA has not provided figures on how many students or schools were affected by Thursday’s disruption.