Fiji is leading the region in all facets of education except upper secondary level which has a completion rate of 71 per cent, says Economy Ministry permanent secretary Shiri Gounder.
“I think that that’s an area that Government and all the stakeholders will have to work on,” he said while speaking at the launch of the inaugural Fiji Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2021 in Suva yesterday.
“In terms of education, attendance in primary school is around 98 per cent, 95 per cent in lower secondary and 71 per cent for upper secondary.
“In terms of ECE (early childhood education) and participation in organised education to the age of five is also quite high at 90 per cent.
“In terms of access to education, in terms of participation, all indicators are above 95 per cent.
“Again on education, 89 per cent of students between the age of five to 24, from ECE to tertiary, are attending school and receive some form of school-related support in terms of transport assistance, in terms of free tuition or free textbooks, this is again the highest in the region.
“Among children between the ages of 10 and 14, foundational reading skills is better compared to our numeracy skills.
“So they are good in English but not so good in maths.
“It is showing that we are good in terms of foundational reading skills but slightly weak in terms of numeracy skills. “Again this is an area for policy intervention on how we can improve numeracy skills in Fiji.”
The Fiji MICS was conducted from March to April 2021 by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics and Health Ministry with support from UNICEF.
