Only 838 pass to Form 7 out of 4,494 students
EIGHTY-ONE percent of form-six students who sat for the 2020 final-year examinations did not make it to form-seven.
This was despite the examination offered at a ‘moderate’ difficulty level, ministry of education says.
John Liliu, manager for National Education Assessment Division (NEAD) Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) in an interview yesterday said this means the transition rate for form-six to seven is 19 percent of the 4494 ‘this means only 19 percent are qualified to form seven’.
“This year’s result revealed that 81 percent of students which is equivalent to 3657 were not be able to get a placement in form seven.
“My advice is we have other options on other organisations and intuitions like the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) and of course the University of South Pacific (USP) centre.
“I want to request our good students in the country this is not the end, there is more opportunities out there and I would like to encourage you continue strive.
“We have a lot of organisations who will provide space for you to excel further in your education,” he said.
Mr Liliu said having less students getting into form seven is a ‘long time issue’, even before covid-19.
He adds that for this year’s results it is also believed that covid-19 is an exacerbating factor to this matter.
“However, speaking of coivd-19 situation in terms of preparedness on examination coverage the level of difficulties on examinations this year is moderate.
“We actually scale the difficulty level, I think it is the most easiest examination students and teachers come across, because we actually mapped out in terms of the preparedness of school.
“For instance, some schools have classes only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so in terms of coverage it will not really in depth.
“Because of those factors we came up with a paper that its difficulty level is just moderate. It is risk to lower it because students would not be able to critical in their thinking,” said Liliu.
He said the ministry has a responsible division who will work to consider the drop-out students as this is an issue the government needs to address for the citizens to avoid causing of social issues in the society.
“As responsible body we make sure to provide the avenue for them for senior secondary expansion the government has its plan,” said Liliu.
