The Minister for Education, Mahendra Reddy (pictured), says any student who may fail a subject but scores over 200 aggregate marks in Year 13 external exam has passed.

On this basis there were no failures this year, Mr Reddy said.

He said all students who had completed Year 13 could attend university or technical college based on their marks.

“There are no failures but rather different levels of attainment in different subjects,” he said

He said: “We can’t call these students a failure because all of them can still attend a university or technical college.”

Mr Reddy made the clarifications last night after questions were raised about the definition of  pass.

The National Federation Party Leader Biman Prasad said the party was confused about Mr Reddy’s statement on Wednesday.

He said: “The minister must clarify what is the meaning of attainment and its relevance to the pass or failure of the students.”

“He should not use qualification for tertiary education loans and scholarship for entry into university or technical colleges to confuse the people about pass and failure.”

But Mr Reddy said: “Every student can go into university or technical college even if they fail or pass. If their marks are high they can do higher education programmes Like MBBA, BCom and if their marks are low they can do Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) courses,” Mr Reddy said.

Mr Reddy said: “These students all have a purpose and they are meant to succeed in other subjects and even if they pass or fail all of them will be funded by the Tertiary Education Loan Scheme (TELS).

“Do not listen to these jokers,” he said, referring to Mr Prasad and the NFP.  Luisa Qiolevu

Edited by Nemani Delaibatiki

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