More than three-quarters of Otago's primary and intermediate school principals believe it is unlikely they will be able to meet a deadline for sending their pupil achievement targets to the Ministry of Education using information from National Standards.
The ministry has asked schools to send the information by January 31 next year.
But a New Zealand Educational Institute online survey shows 77.4% of Otago respondents believed it was "unrealistic" or "very unrealistic" to meet the deadline.
Another 12.9% believed the deadline was "realistic" or "very realistic", while 9.7% did not answer the question.
The NZEI surveyed 500 principals around the country to get an updated picture of how schools were progressing with National Standards, one year on from their introduction.
Of the 500 respondents, 31 were Otago principals from 12 rural schools and 19 urban schools.
However, there are about 120 primary and intermediate schools in Otago and the sample only represents about a quarter of the region's principals.
The survey also showed 80.6% of Otago respondents were not confident National Standards would do what the ministry said they were going to.
Reasons for their lack of confidence were time-pressured implementation, a lack of evidence, no trial of the standards, the limited professional development, the design flaws (the standards do not match present achievement norms), and the issues with moderation and national consistency.
Principals were concerned about the potential for National Standards to narrow the curriculum, and be used to label children, create league tables, and enable performance pay.
Results from Otago respondents reflected those from other regions.
Nationally, 80% said they would not meet the ministry's deadline.
NZEI president Frances Nelson said the survey showed that, a year on, schools were still struggling with the concept of National Standards and encountering real difficulties in implementing them.
"The reason so many principals say they are unlikely to meet the suggested target-setting deadline is because there is still too much uncertainty and inconsistency.
"They don't want to be reporting against a set of National Standards which they know don't accurately or meaningfully reflect student achievement in their schools."
She said the "confused situation" prevalent one year on from National Standards was entirely predictable and would only deepen next year if the Government continued to ignore expressed concerns.
The Government needed to take significant steps to address the problems, she said.
Education Minister Anne Tolley said more than 75% of schools did not feel the need to respond to what she called "yet another skewed survey" by the teachers' union.
"I've had fantastic feedback from parents this week who have received their child's National Standards reports," the minister said.
