Cabinet to decide on removal of No-Repeat Policy - Radrodro

A report will be submitted to Cabinet for a decision on the removal of the No-Repeat Policy or Automatic Progression Policy.

This has been confirmed by Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro while responding to President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalabvu’s opening speech in Parliament.

Radrodro says automatic progression has created a culture of complacency, leaving knowledge gaps among students and the current practice in Fiji.

He says this enables automatic progression for students to the next level up to Year 12.

The Minister says a national stakeholder consultation was conducted on the 16th of January, with approximately 80 participants attending from stakeholder partners and an online survey was also conducted.

Radrodro further says groundwork has also begun for the public consultation for the reintroduction of scaling in the national examination process, and a steering committee has been set up.

While highlighting the progress being made in relation to the literacy numeracy exam, Radrodro says for the Year 5 on literacy rates, there has been an increase from 83 percent in 2023 to 90 percent in 2024.

He says for Year 7 literacy rates, it was 93 percent in 2023 and in 2024.

The Minister says for the numeracy rate for Year 5, there has been a significant increase from 47 percent in 2023 to 74 percent in 2024.

For numeracy in Year 7, there has also been a massive increase from a 52 percent pass in 2023 to 83 percent pass in 2024 while for Year 8 Exam, they achieved a pass rate of 67 percent in 2023, and in 2024 this increased to 69 percent.

He says for Fiji Year 12 Examination, the pass rate for 2023 was 74 percent and in 2024 this has increased to 76 percent.

Radrodro says for Year 12 Examination, reflection of the year 2022, there has been a pass rate of 66 percent which means from 2022 to the year 2024 there has been a massive increase of 10 percent in pass rate, which is truly commendable.

He says for Year 13 Certificate Examination, an average of 86 percent has been achieved over the past five years, with the lowest of 70 percent observed in 2021 and a high of 91 percent in 2023 and an 86 percent pass rate was achieved last year.

The Minister says they are on a path of lifting Fiji's education sector, as can be noted from the school results alone and while they had a slight drop in Year 13 results last year, they intend to achieve well this year.

He says he recently spoke to school principals and heads of school that a 100 percent pass rate for the students is the goal.