BY BEN BILUA
Gizo
SOLOMON Islands is sitting at the top in the Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA).
This was confirmed by Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, Dr Franco Rodie in his speech during the opening of the 6th National Education Conference at Gizo, Western Province on Monday.
“Compared to other pacific island countries, our primary education pupils are performing well in the regional Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA) especially in English and have performed exceptionally well in numeracy.
“National Examination results administered to 9, 11 and 12 students shows that our students are meeting the proficiency level set by the ministry in terms of curriculum outcomes, but are struggling in some subjects such as year 9 mathematics and in science at year 11,” he said.
Rodie adds that access to higher education has been improved over the past decade and that younger people in the country have more educational opportunities, attain higher levels of education than their parents.
He said the country’s education system have achieved impressive growth in enrolling rates, increased number of qualified and trained teachers, curriculum materials and students’ learning outcome.
Rodie stressed that the achievements were made possible through support from the government, communities and development partners who have made huge investment in education.
However he said, critics on the performance of the country education system still remains with enormous challenges.
Rodie said the demand for both schools and tertiary education have been increasing steadily at a much higher rate compared to say a decade ago.
