Educating the likes of Jainendra
5-Feb-2010 07:58 AM

The Ministry of Education acknowledges that the Fiji Times Editorial Comment titled, ‘Educating Jainendra’ on Tuesday 2nd of February is an unfortunate incident.

Nonetheless the Ministry remains affirmed in its policy that students must progress upward until they reach Form 6 and sit for their FSLC Examinations.

Upon investigation, the Ministry saw that the decision made by the Waiqele Secondary School management was an exposure to what it is trying to curb so that the incident is not repetitive in any school.

Jainendra is a product of a system where examinations both internal and external were used as ‘yardsticks’ as Fiji Times had said to sieve the brighter students from the slower ones. While the higher scorers proceed further, the slower ones remained and many of them were forced back to repeat.

Then again one cannot say they (examinations) were ‘to our detriment’ because through examinations we have doctors, teachers, lawyers and many other professions and vocations.

We even, at one time, had a lawyer who pursued law after passing his Fiji Secondary School Entrance (Class 8) and became one of Fiji’s top lawyers in his time and also one of the founding fathers of Fiji. The weight of FSSE at that time was equivalent to FSLC today.

However the Ministry of Education has put in place few other mechanisms to ensure that students progress upward without hindrances.

First, the Ministry has an Inspectoral System Team that checks on school performances, facilities and provides advice to school management to ensure continuous improvement. In addition, the Ministry solicits community support through community education and awareness. The exercise allows the Ministry as education provider to partnership with education consumers.

Then the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry is developing the curriculum to be relevant to students’ need and responsive to market demand. That is why the Unit is devising assessment strategies that will assist students expose their strengths and for teachers to identify weaknesses for further treatment. The rationale is to see everyone progress upwards even the likes of Jainendra.

Aside from this, the Ministry is currently restructuring its organisation to take its services to district levels where the public can access services.

Furthermore the establishment of the Fiji Teachers Registration Board provides quality assurance that schools will be staffed by well qualified and competent teachers.

The few mentioned strategies once gained momentum will definitely assist schools like Waiqele Secondary not to retain students at form five. Supporting the school to achieve success in examination is still a hangover of the examination syndrome the Ministry of Education wishes to eradicate.

Sadly the Fiji Times comments are premature and baseless because the Ministry of Education plans and strategies all came up in 2009. Surely teething problems are expected, but that should not stop the Fiji Times to bring the subject up again in five years time.