The Education Ministry’s recent decision to enforce 12 years of education for all students in Fiji, is aligned to a regulation that was intended to address school dropouts but could not be enforced.
The 1997 Compulsory Education Order (Legal Notice No.22) and the Compulsory Education Regulations (Legal Notice No.23) will now have to be enforced to ensure all students reach Form 6.
The regulation will work in tandem with the Schools Inspectorate System, School Review and Monitoring System and Internal Assessment and External Moderation.
In this regard, the Ministry outlines the following support structures to complement this regulation:
Remedial programmes that are part of daily lessons that target slow learners in all subject areas;
Strengthening FILNA as the assessment system for primary schools but administered by teachers;
Implementing a system of internal assessment with a more detailed analysis of student achievement and reporting;
Ongoing counselling systems which involve parents and stakeholders;
Programmes with the primary purpose of preventing students from dropping out and helping dropout re-enter to complete their schooling;
Programmes having multi-purposes, one of which is targeted for dropout recovery and dropout prevention;
Programmes with broad purposes, not explicitly encompassing dropouts but those, whose funds may be used to help individuals complete their schooling. This will financially support disadvantaged students, especially with bus fares and lunch money.
In their twelfth year, students will be given a Certificate of Completion.
All programmes and initiatives administered by the Ministry of Education are for the continuous improvement of education for the best interests of the student. There will be a more elaborate system of internal assessment with very accurate reporting of student achievement to parents.
Filipe Bole
Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment.