Even though the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Winston was immense, the Education Ministry could not put the blame on the natural disaster for the dip in Fiji Eighth Year examinations results.

“A part of the drop in the pass rate is because of TC Winston but we do not want to take shield behind this natural disaster, instead we would work on our teaching methodology to have improved results next year,” said Minister for Education Mahendra Reddy.

Mr Reddy said the teaching methodology needed to be improved to overcome the setbacks during the year.

“We want to go back and look at the subject which the children had performed poorly on for example mathematics and see how we could improve on our teaching methodology so that our students’ numeracy skills are improved,” Mr Reddy said.

In an interview, Mr Reddy said while the pass rate this year was five per cent lower than last year’s 70 per cent, the ministry continues to work toward a 100 per cent pass rate.

He said they were also putting in a number of reform measures that should translate to better pass rate.

“As you know last year was 70 per cent and we are aiming for 100 per cent. That will take time but we will need time for the education reforms to be put into place,” Mr Reddy said.

“And these students, who appear in these examinations, had gone through a system where there were no exams, so we expect a much better performance next year.

“This is because those students who appear next year did Year 6 exams last year.”

The ministry is urging students to spend their break on extracurricular activities that would up-skill them.

Mr Reddy said students should make good use of this break before they returned to school.

“The purpose of the holidays is to give students a break from academic work,” Mr Reddy said.

“What we look forward to is students having this opportunity to spend time in extracurricular activities which could up-skill them for instance sports, for instance music, some students might have interest in swimming or tennis.

“This is the opportunity to students in a relaxed environment and acquires those skills which they could not because of their heavy involvement in study.”

On the same note, he is urging them to be extra careful and also making a call for parents to keep an eye out for their children

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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