Education Minister Doctor Mahendra Reddy said by looking at the raw scores attained by students in external examinations over the last 40 years, the mean marks have been declining.
Dr Reddy said this is one of the reasons why the scaling of the marks for the Fiji Year 12 and Year 13 Certificate Examinations has been removed from this year.
Dr. Reddy said they want to address the root cause of the low performance of students and measures will be put in place this year to determine the true marks for students..
He said with the removal of scaling from external examinations, the syllabus from Years 1-13 will be revised and standardized with specific learning outcomes, and the internal assessment components will be strengthened in all subjects and moderated internally in schools with strong emphasis on teaching and revision.
Dr Reddy said the Year 10 National Examination will be reintroduced and externally prepared final examinations for each subject for Years 6 9 and Year 11 introduced.
He said that the Ministry will provide detailed solutions and marking guides for each of the subject examinations.
The scaling system was introduced in 1979 for the Fiji Seventh Form Certificate Examination and in 1989 for Fiji School Leaving Certificate Examinations as a principled method of addressing subject equivalence.
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