While 99 per cent of students complete primary school, approximately 20 per cent of these students will drop out of school between Year 8 and Year 12.
Presenting the Status of Fiji’s Education System report at the Fiji National Education Summit 2023 in Nadi yesterday, Education Ministry permanent secretary Selina Kuruleca said the highest rates of school drops were between those age groups.
“So, they leave primary school, then they go to secondary school. Sometime during those big holidays, some of the children leave us for whatever reason,” she said.
“They don’t complete their formal education, at least here in Fiji, because they’re no longer enrolled.”
Ms Kuruleca said in secondary school, students failing in Maths also led to dropouts.
“In secondary school, 37 per cent of children fail in Year 8 and 59 per cent of students fail in Maths in Year 13.
“What happened to the 41 per cent?”
Ms Kuruleca said participation or excess indicators were relatively strong with 100 per cent completion rates at the primary level and nearly 86 per cent at the secondary level.
“The latter is the result of approximately 20 per cent of children dropping out from the system after Year 8. The estimated dropout is based on the number of children sitting for Year 8 in 2018 and the number of children in the same cohort sitting for the Year 12 examination in 2022.
“So, 81 per cent of the pre-schoolchildren are developmentally on track.
“The situation of learning in our schools is well below par. Only a number of them will actually complete learning at Year 12. This is based on data that the ministry has collected over the years in partnership with the FEMAS and with help from ECAP.”
