Pacific Education: Outsourcing the development of examination papers
For many Pacific island countries, the development of examination papers for its high-stakes national examinations is usually outsourced by their education ministries to subject experts in their tertiary institutions. Last year proved a challenge as…
24th Pacific Heads of Education Systems meeting
The 24th Consultation Meeting of the Pacific Heads of Education Systems (PHES) is co-hosted by UNESCO and Papua New Guinea's Ministry of Education. The conference, organised by UNESCO every biennium, is structured around plenaries and presentations,…
Pacific Education: the region's teachers require increased support in the teaching of geometry
This was revealed through the contextual questionnaire given to teacher respondents in the PILNA-administered schools: Of the seven numeracy domains taught at the Year 4 and Year 6 grade level, geometry and, data and chance were the ones teachers felt…
Pacific Education: Teaching Literacy
In the PILNA 2018 study, teachers were asked about their confidence in teaching specific aspects of literacy and numeracy. Their responses are important to help education systems design their teachers' professional development plans.
The teaching of…
Pacific Education: caregiver engagement with students
The PILNA 2018 study found the degree of caregiver engagement or support to be low, with only about 4 in every 10 students having a family member or ‘caregiver’ actively supporting their efforts to learn to read at home. This study underlined the need…
Micro-Qualifications Validation Workshop
EQAP engages stakeholder representatives to review the draft documentations on the six micro-qualifications in meteorological services. These accredited short courses are delivered by the Fiji Meteorological Services.
The draft documents support the …
Pacific Education: gap in critical thinking
Year 4 and Year 6 students in the PILNA 2018 research were assessed for their grasp of basic literacy and numeracy skills. For questions or items that required critical thinking, more than half of the students were unable to provide the expected response…
Citizens’ right to quality education denotes right to timely education data
Blog by EQAP's Education Statistician Gregory Keeble
Pacific Education: pupil-teacher ratio
Education research suggests that student learning outcomes improve with low pupil-teacher ratio. In other words, smaller classes are generally beneficial as it can mean that students receive more attention, or focused assistance, from their teacher.
Samoa’s new Tool Development Unit completes Phase 1 of three-month training
A team of education officers in Samoa has completed the first phase of a three-month training programme in the development of test instruments facilitated by the Pacific Community (SPC).