The Ministry of Education today announced the establishment of a review committee to examine the scaling of final examination marks.
The Minister for Education, Dr Mahendra Reddy said the review is aimed at ascertaining whether the intended objective of scaling is met by the existing scaling process and formula.
Dr Reddy said the three-member review team will work within a three-week timeline and the output of the review will be used for this year’s external examinations.
“We do not want to pass failed students; that is not the objective of scaling. We need to be clear about that,” Dr Reddy said.
“We want to ensure that scaling does not result in us sending students to the university or to the job market who are not ready.”
The independent review team, with background in policy making and quantitative economics as well mathematics, statistics and education, is led by the Professor and Head of Economics at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Professor Satya Paul.
Professor Paul, who has an extensive knowledge in the area of scaling, was the Professor of Economics in the University of Western Sydney.
He will be assisted by educationist, Professor Subhash Chandra and USP Associate Professor of Mathematics, Dr Jito Vanualailai, who will provide the review team quantitative dimension.
“The scaling should give a right message not only to the current students but also to the future generation of this country. It should also give the right message to the employers and all other stakeholders,” Professor Paul said.
“We have to carefully look at a formula and decide what should be the criteria to shift the mean to the right handside or to the left. This is the most important thing to decide, that is, to change the mean or if there is an alternative to mean.”
Dr Reddy added that a full report would be made public after the completion of the review.
-ENDS-