Students need to be interested

 Students must be interested in the learning being undertaken and must be capable of undertaking the level of learning, West Sepik educationist Frank Evan says.

“Students are being pushed on to higher levels of learning after failing lower grades,” he said.

“Many are uninterested and most are incapable.”

One issue Evan raised was the low standards in primary and lower secondary and the promotion of “failed” students.

He presented statistics for Grade 8 students in West Sepik in 2012 and 2013 and for Manus.

The statistics showed that a lesser number from the total of students who sat for the Grade 8 exams in 2012 had passed; however the number of students promoted to Grade 9 was more than the number of students who passed.

Evan presented statistics for Morobe in 2010 saying that not enough children had met the pass mark for Grade 9 selections; which was 65 out of 150 (43%). 

The selection panel was lowered.

He said the Grade 10 exam statistics that the Norm Referenced Assessment is still being used in the Grade 10 examination. 

“As result, schools do not immediately realise that standards have fallen dramatically.”

Evan talked about possible ways forward, saying the education sector of  the Aitape-Lumi district department plan 2014-18, approved 2013 by the National Planning Department, contains the following provisions:

• The abolishment of elementary schools;
• the enrollment of Grade 1 children in primary school;
• the enrolment of Grade 7 students in high/secondary schools; and,
• The replacement of Outcomes-Based Education with an Objectives-Based approach to curriculum implementation.

In conclusion he said the successful schools in West Sepik were Oksapmin High School and Saint Ignatius Secondary School.