Fiji’s Ministry of Education has not decided on dates to hold external exams for students in their final year of primary and high school studies, saying it could happen either later in the year or early next year.
Permanent Secretary for Education Angela Jokhan said before they could allow for exams, they will need to gauge students’ engagement and understanding of learnings carried out during the COVID-break which will start with revision sessions when classroom lessons resume and thereafter coverage of the syllabus that kid’s will be examined on.
The Education Ministry will also have to make allowances for potential disruption to studies and/or revisions ahead of the impending cyclone season.
“It could possibly be early next year,” Jokhan said. “It really depends because we also are very mindful that we’re going into the cyclone season. So we have to cater for all those disruptions when we try to get the term together.
“Once they come to school, year 12 to year 13 students will go through several weeks of studies, revisions and then they will sit their exams. While we are providing study materials, we cannot be assured that every single student has done the same work. So the whole idea of bringing them back is to spend time with them to make sure that everybody catches up and everybody’s on the same page before we can get them to sit exams.”
As for non-examination classes, and whether they progress to the next level or not, Jokhan said they were looking at options which she did not elaborate on.
She however made reference to plans to have four schooling term next year, with the first term focused on revision and help students grasp difficult concepts “so they don’t lose the learning that they would otherwise.”
“Again the same issue, we cannot guarantee you every student is doing what they are supposed to be doing, so that they will allow them to catch up on this year’s work before they progress into the next year.”
