Education system not ready for exam phase out

Students in class at the New Erima Primary and Junior High School in Port Moresby (NBC News)

Statistics from the 2024 Grade 12 national examination results indicate the country’s education system is not ready for the proposed phase out of the grade 8 examinations this year.

Department of Higher Education Research Science and technology Acting Secretary Fr. Jan Czuba told NBC News, these statistics are alarming and indicate the timing is not right.

Fr. Jan says besides the ineligibility of students is the lack of human resource, physical infrastructure and a curriculum.

Statistics reveal from over 30 thousand students who applied for higher learning institutions last year, only 10-thousand were selected together with a further 12-thousand from the admissions pool.

This left over 11-thousand spaces free, because students in Grade 12 were not eligible as they scored less than the average GPA of 1.95.

Fr Jan points out the trend of academic performance of grade twelve students in the last seven years (NBC News: Lyanne Togiba)

Fr. Jan described this as alarming statistics with last year's, being the second lowest percentage of total students selected to tertiary institutions at 33.4 %, a drop from 2022's 40%.

“However, the capacity we have was 23,000. So, over 11,000 spaces are free. Students in grade 12 are not eligible to apply because the GPA is too low", Fr Jan said.

The phase out of examinations for grade 8 will see about 120-thousand students going through to secondary education of grade 9, something system cannot absorb.

The acting Higher Education Secretary says examinations are an important tool to assess the effectiveness of curriculums, the measure of progress for student learning, and the performance of teachers.

“And they will be expected to go to post-secondary education. This means that we need to have a different approach to provide post-secondary education. Because to develop new curriculum, to build a new physical infrastructure, to get qualified lecturers and professors to our institutions takes time.

"So, exams are extremely important to measure the quality of the learners, quality of teaching, quality of curriculum, and how the school is performing. Without exams, we are guessing”

Fr Jan has called for a strategic plan to highlight the level of investment required to make this proposal successful.

NBC News is seeking comments from the Education Department.