Fijian Teachers Association’s general secretary Paula Manumanunitoga has called for the scrapping of the No Repeat Policy.
The association has been raising the issue for months, and the urgency has become more pronounced with the release of the Fiji Eighth Year Examination last week.
Mr Manumanunitoga says it is crucial for the system to retain children who fail their exams.
Special attention could be paid to these group of children to help them prepare for the next level of learning.
“This could also prevent students from receiving a free pass to move to the next class if they fail their exams or assessments,” he said.
“This will also encourage parents to pay more attention to their children’s studies, which would then certainly have an effect on performance automatically.”
He said the slight distinction of a 69 per cent pass rate for the FEYE compared with 67 per cent last year, pointed to a probable weakness within the education system.
“All stakeholders, from the classroom teachers up to the Divisional Education Offices, District Education offices, and the ministry headquarters, must all now take stock.
“Analyse and devise counterstrategies to make improvements next year.
“There could be many contributing factors to this low pass rate, and the head of learning and his team at the Ministry (MOE) headquarters should find out why we are scoring so low these days.”
He also questioned the curriculum implemented by the ministry and the quality of teachers produced at tertiary institutions.
“Is it because of the curriculum or is it because of the quality of teachers produced at teacher training institutions?
“This is a very serious matter; it’s shocking and shameful to say the least.
“It’s like almost half of the Year 8 students in this country failed this exam.
“If there needs to be changes made, then some people need to vacate the posts they’re occupying and go home.
“They are not worth their salt in the ministry and the teachers in the schools as well.
“Some people are not doing their job. The whole country demands answers from school heads and teachers on why such bad results occur.”
Mr Manumanunitoga said teachers’ wellbeing in a stressful work environment was another element that may influence student achievement.
“We at FTA had always been demanding that teachers’ pay should be increased and that they should be paid a decent wage.
“We had approached the Government, but we have not been paid much attention by the Honourable Biman Prasad, the Minister for Finance.”
Questions sent to Education Minister Aseri Radrodro remain unanswered.
