Key moments in 1969-70
In 1969 the Education Commission of the Colony recommended that “experimental” junior secondary schools for Years 7 to 10 (then Forms One to Four) should be established in the rural areas, and that the corresponding primary schools be reduced to Years 1 to 6 (Classes One to Six).
In 1970, a remit to the Fiji Principals Association annual conference read: “That no teacher be allowed to sit for the Fiji Junior Certificate more than twice.”
What lay behind the remit was the chronic shortage of qualified teachers at all levels. Many primary school teachers finished their education at Year 8 (Class Eight) and then obtained a licence to teach and received what was probably the lowest weekly wage in the country.
In that same year, 1970, the Ministry of Education tried to assist secondary schools with enrolments to Year 9 (Form Three) by developing a non-verbal “general ability test” (with the assistance of the psychology department of the University of the South Pacific). This enabled secondary school principals to compare actual ability with students’ achievement in the Fiji Eighth Year Examination. Unfortunately, some teachers began coaching students specifically for the GAT and it had to be dropped.
In spite of the shortage of teachers at all levels, the junior secondary school movement took off and in almost every corner of Fiji parents demanded these schools.
At that time there were many expatriate teachers in the country, including a big number of Peace Corps volunteers. Some teachers brought from South India discovered that many students could not understand their heavily accented English.
The then government developed education programs for primary and secondary teachers and gradually replaced all the expatriates.
The populations of both full secondary and junior secondary schools were very different from what it is today.
Numbers of students were excluded from Year 7 (Class 7) by means of the Fiji Intermediate Examination. Larger numbers were excluded from Year 9 (Form Three)through the Fiji Eighth Year Examination (Secondary Entrance Examination). This was followed by another filtering of students by the Fiji Junior Examination in Year 10 (Form Four).
This meant the teachers in Years 11 and 12 (Forms Five and Six) were dealing with an elite, possibly the top 15 per cent of students in the country. Theirs was a relatively easy job, and it would be no surprise for you to learn that in 1970 the average chemistry mark in the University Entrance examination (which sixth formers used to sit) at Marist Brothers’ High School was over 80 per cent.
There were no poor readers to deal with, no cases of ADHD or autism, although a severely spastic student and another with a polio handicap were accepted and did very well in the examinations.
Our needs in 2015
In 2015, the Year 11 and 12 teachers have to cope with the bottom 85 per cent of the student population, as well as the top 15 per cent. Again, it was no surprise when we learned that in recent years the average raw marks in some subjects have been below 30 per cent.
From Year 1 on, the range of achievement of students continues to expand so that at Year 9 we can find a number of students who cannot read a simple sentence, and even a few who cannot write their names. The challenge for secondary teachers is very great, having a range of students from Year 1 to possibly Year 10.
Secondary teachers have not been trained to teach basic phonics and other reading skills or help students to acquire a number sense. They are helpless when faced with a number of these students in their classes. The results are boredom, absenteeism, inattention and frustration, resulting in various disciplinary problems and eventually delinquency.
Ambulance at foot of the cliff
Counselling has been introduced, but it is like the ambulance at the foot of the cliff collecting the bodies of those who fall over the edge.
What has added to the disciplinary problems, especially in urban areas, is the lack of preparation for marriage and family life in an urban situation. Too many parents are ignorant of the need to establish boundaries for their children and to provide both encouragement and facilities for study. Fathers in particular need to be more open to their children. The enabling family environment of village life must be replaced by parental concern and care. The goal of a “knowledge-based society” could very well be replaced by a “family-based society”.
The inclusive education policy of the ministry has yet to be successfully implemented by first encouraging streaming of classes at every level and keeping the class numbers for slower students as small as possible, even 15 to 20, and then providing suitable teachers for the students.
Abolition of examinations and automatic transition to the next year are good moves for the socialisation of our students, but the consequences for their progress in literacy and numeracy have been disastrous.
The author has experienced all of the above, and was one of those “testing” the GAT in 1970.
* Br Fergus Garrett is a Marist Brother and teacher. The views expressed are his and not of this newspaper.
