Gradual decline in the analytical ability of students and employees - Reddy

Education Minister, Dr. Mahendra Reddy says there has been a gradual decline in the analytical ability of students and employees.

He says students tend not to question given facts and they tend to shy away from activities, responsibilities or assignments which require quantitative skills.

While speaking at the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation Top Executives Conference, Reddy highlighted that students tend to provide second best or substandard advice in the absence of rigorous analytical analysis.

He says this is a global challenge.

He asked the executives what is the position of TOPEX in this country and don=t they think that mathematics is important at the work place.

He says the opponents are arguing that Year 12 level mathematics is not needed as it is too advanced.

The Education Minister says while he agrees that it will not be needed for day to day operations, it is designed to develop and prepare the mind of a student for analytical and logical thinking.

Meanwhile, Reddy says over the last three months they have raised the issue of poor language proficiency amongst the graduates and this issue also caught the attention of the Prime Minister.

He says the Ministry of Education has embarked on various reforms recently to address the deficiencies in the education sector and raise the performance bar to meet the demand in the national, regional and international labour market.