Reddy asks for universities entry marks reduction

Education Minister, Dr Mahendra Reddy has written to the Vice Chancellors of the University of the South Pacific, Fiji National University and the University of Fiji to reconsider lowering of entry marks for Higher Education programs to the students completing Year 13 examination in light of the discontinuation of marks scaling.

Reddy confirmed this in Parliament today when Opposition MP, Biman Prasad asked the Minister if he has written to the Vice Chancellors of the three universities to lower the entry mark of year 13 students from 250 to 200 based on English and three best subjects.

Reddy says the rise of entry marks was adopted by the Universities in light of the view that students obtaining a pass in English and three other subjects with an aggregate mark of 200 would not have been able to perform well in University studies in the past.

He says now that they have removed mark scaling, the basis for raising the entry mark from 200 to 250 no longer holds and in this regard he has written to the three universities.

Opposition MP, Prem Singh then asked Reddy if he is expecting pass rates to decrease this year which has made him to write to the universities.

Reddy says his expectation is that the pass rates using raw marks should increase this year.

He adds the response from the universities has also been positive.

Another Opposition MP, Aseri Radrodro also asked Reddy whether the universities will be having sufficient resources to accommodate the increase in the number of students.

Reddy says they do not see any problems in regards to space except for programs where there is limited space like medicine and aviation.