SBC Syllabus and Teachers Guide PDF | Papua New Guinea Education Department

 Teachers, parents and students can now download SBC Syllabus and Teachers Guide Pdf for all the subjects at the education department's website. 

PNG Insight has a dedicated maths resource website where you can download the resources you need for teaching mathematics. See links to the website below.

(Want to work as a Data Collector in the 2024 National Census nationwide? Here is how to apply)

Maths resources and SBC Syllabus and Teachers Guide Pdf

PNG Insight has all the SBC syllabus and teachers' guide as well as the OLD syllabus and teachers' guide. 

Access the resources via the links.

• SBC Syllabus and Teachers Guide Pdf
• OLD Syllabus and Teachers' Guide Pdf
• Past Maths Exam Papers
• Latest Maths Exam Papers
• Teachers' Apps and resources

Visit the PNG Maths Exam Resource Centre.

Maths Syllabus and Guides

Mathematics resources for teachers are a useful collection of teaching materials for Primary (Grades 7 & 8) and Secondary School (Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12) Mathematics teachers in Papua New Guinea. 

Whether you are a new graduate teacher or a seasoned mathematics teacher, you’ll find some of the most often used resources here.

Standard Based Curriculum (SBC)

The new SBC is in the implementation stage in the earlier schooling years. The implementation is in phases and will cover the secondary years. We believe the school syllabus and teachers' guides for Grades 3 – 8 are complete. And the Grades 9 – 12 SBC syllabus is a work-in-progress.

What you can get at the Maths resources website?

 We had some great features to enhance math exam revision. 

Some of them include:

• Old Exam Papers for Grades 8,10 and 12 students to download.
• Study Guides for Grades 8, 10 and 12
• Outline of Exam Units and Topics You should know
• Teachers' Mathematics revision resources for use with students 
• Education department Apps and Links to on-demand webpages
• Maths Examinations Tips and Guides

We are adding to this resource base, check out the home page for the new resources.

Year 8 maths test papers with answers PDF Download

Year 8 students from the UK or Australia will find this maths test paper with answers PDF useful. It contains classroom tests questions on Algebra.
You can download the free test paper at our Maths Resource Website - see the link below. First, here are some important points that you should know when revising for your maths tests.

What to expect in your test?

Your maths teacher often sets the test from the easiest question to the hardest. Where there are short-answer questions, you’ll see the easier ones at the top and the harder ones at the bottom. Here are some quick tips:

• The one-mark questions need no working out. Always write the answers clearly and include the units where necessary. 
• Most questions will need working out whereas others will ask you to give reasoning. Take time to do the higher-order questions if they carry 3 - 5 marks.
• The Year 8 maths tests marks can range from 30 – 50. You should be able to complete them in one period, 40 or 50 minutes. Some end-of-the-year tests do often have more than 50 marks and can take up to two periods in duration time.

Read the instruction carefully

Your teacher will expect you to do certain things. These expectations are often given in the instructions. So, it is important to read the instructions and know what you must do to get full marks.

Here is an example of instructions you are likely to see on your Year 8 maths test papers:

• You may use a calculator.
• Read all questions carefully.
• You will need a ruler.
• You have 50 minutes to complete this test.
• Show all you working in the space provided.

Year 8 maths test best practices

Do not spend too much time on one question if you find it very hard to do. Move on and attempt the other test questions. Return to the hard question/s when you have time in the end.

For example, if you have 50 minutes to do 40 test questions, that is 1.25 minutes per question. Some questions may take less time, but all in all, you should NOT spend 2 minutes or more on one question. By doing this, you’ll have time to answer all the questions.

Using the Year 8 maths test paper with answers PDF

This is a real test for Year 8 students. It’s on Algebra. The questions are ideal for Year 8 students from the UK and Australia. 

If you are an 8th Grade student from the US, you'll find these Algebra questions useful too.

Get the Year 8 Algebra test paper with answers PDF

Where to get more Year 8 maths test questions and topics PDF?

The resources on our maths website are free of charge. We’ve created it to help students who need these maths resources to do well in tests and exams. 

What’s more, we want to ensure that maths questions are available to students when they need them.

Get the Year 8 Algebra test paper with answers PDF

Here are resources that will help you to prepare for Year 8 tests and exams. You can get them via the links below.

• How to study and ace your test.
• Download Year 8 maths tests papers with answers PDF.
• Checklist of Year 8 maths topics.
• Year 8 maths past exam papers - PDF

All in all, if you are a Year 8 parent or student, we hope you find these maths test questions useful.

Visitors note:

We produced a lot of maths resources like this - let us know what you are looking for and we will direct you to the right pages to access them.

If you have any questions about the Year 8 maths test papers with answers PDF, please leave a message below. 

Mathematics Exam Resources Website for PNG students and teachers

Your initiative (Mathematics Examination Resources website) is welcomed as an approach students can prepare themselves well ahead of examinations.

Consequently, the issues and challenges are briefly discussed to deepen members of the public perceptions of the examination papers, examination, teaching and learning, school curriculum, memorisation and thinking strategies.

Readers' note: The comments are by/from the former PNG Education Department Secretary Dr Michael Tapo in response to the new initiative we spearheaded - making online resources for teachers and students. We thank Dr Tapo for reaching out and for the comments below.

The math resource website is called Mathematics Examination Resources (MER). Here is why (The Reason) we created this Maths resource website. Take a look and let us know what you think.

An in-depth article from Dr Tapo was published on the PNG Insight parent website titled 'Thinking Strategies' Help Students Solve Problems' - read here.  

Immediate challenges in educational approaches

Central to all of the approaches taken, the century-long learning phenomenon of Thinking versus Memorising of facts in the late 1960s -1980s is worth revisiting. Approaches such as:

• students were routinised memorising of facts, and
• learn to remember and then display this in Grade 6, Grade 8, and Grade 10 examinations. 

When they fail to understand the examination questions and cannot remember the facts they fail to meet the achievement level for high school or tertiary and university education.

Problem Solving and Thinking Strategies

School education examination in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from 1975 to 2020 and beyond is all about Knowledge Gathering and Remembering and is significant and very much dependent on the quantity of teaching, quality of teaching, and teacher quality.  

The problem has been and continues to be so and is an urgent and acute problem associated very much to Problem Solving or best described as Thinking.

Almost all high and secondary school education in Papua New Guinea failed to focus Problem Solving Strategies. And have limited teaching and learning strategies that address the scientific approach (of teaching thinking strategies) required to solve problems.  Hence, its an apparent strategy and definite means to know the facts from knowledge and skills taught and learned in primary, high and secondary examinations.

We know revising for exams is important because it helps to stop anxiety and stress. We created a Maths website where you can download Grade 8, Grade 10 and Grade 12 General Maths and Advanced Maths Exam Papers. GET THEM HERE.

Importance of teaching the syllabus 

The amount of time spent in teaching and learning mathematics, Science and Grammar is interconnected to the number of multiple practices each child assumes in class in these subjects is significant to avoiding dependency on past and recent examination papers. 

The current culture of schooling and learning is dependent on schools and teachers must teach children more and make them work harder to increase their information on the level of knowledge and skills planned around the subject learning being learned.  

Foremost, the level of individual child intelligence and termly achievements in a subject learning area must be corrected with the facts (knowledge and skills acquisition). Students primarily learn best if they can remember these facts. 

Knowledge and skills being examined 

The ambiguity of language and phrases used in the past and more recent examination papers indicate the facts of knowledge and skills being examined can or could lead to confusion.

Some questions can mislead students to select or choose to answer a question in future examinations because of a similar question and answer from the past examination papers and likely answer that is expected in the 2020 or 2021 examination papers.

The quest for high and secondary examinations is placing more emphasis on the thinking strategies which lead children to creativity, problem-solving, inquiry, and critical approach to thinking in a subject learning area being learned. 

Expectations and clarity of examinations 

Papua New Guinea children in the 21st Century must be encouraged and have a voice in determining what is taught in the National Curriculum, what is examined and the rules applied to assessing and measuring of facts in knowledge and skills in examinations.

Quality of teaching and teacher quality needs major shifts towards thinking strategies and say goodbye to the current heavily dependent ideology of the 'chalk-talk and certainty principle which is central to the there is a right and wrong answer to every question! 

Dr Michael F Tapo, EdD 

Grade 8 Online Skill MCQ Test and Answers | Quick Feedback

Grade 8 Online Skill MCQ Test and Answers is a quick test and feedback online assessment.  The online MCQ test is an addition to the Grades 8, 10 and 12 Exam Papers for Free Download initiative on our new Math Exam Resource website. 

Check it out

This earlier post ( Grade 8, 10 and 12 Math Exam Resource) gives more info about the different features of the website.

We announce three (3) new features. In an effort to help students perform well in mathematics examinations in Papua New Guinea, we:

(i) developed an Online Skill Test for Grade 8 Students, 

(ii) compiled past exam papers (10 years collection) for Grade 8, 10 and 12 students to download for free and revise for mathematics examinations, and

(iii) arranged Grade 10 Exam questions (2010 - 2014) by PNG School Syllabus Unit where students can revise by unit/topic in preparation for the mathematics exam. 

This is an independent initiative of PNG Insight. We do this in our free time. And, want our readers to be part of it. Be part of our initiative for the benefit of our children.

Visit PNG Mathematics Exam Resources for Grades 8, 10 and 12 Teachers and Students.

We know revising for exam is important because it helps to stop anxiety and stress. We created a Maths website where you can download Grade 8, Grade 10 and Grade 12 Mx General Maths and Advanced Maths Exam Papers. GET THEM HERE.

EXAM RESOURCE FOR GRADE 8, 10 and 12 STUDENTS | Download Old Exam Papers

We know times are hard. Schools have been struggling this year. That is why we made this website - PNG Maths Exam Resources (MER) Website.

SEE LINK IN THE ARTICLE

PNG Insight created this website to give teachers and students the opportunity to access materials - especially revision materials  old exam papers for Mathematics Examinations - with ease. It is a community service as such the resources are made available for FREE.

The website is mobile friendly and interactive, which means you can take some tests online and get the scores and feedback at the end of the test. 

Features of PNG Insight's MER

 We had some great features to enhance math exam revision. Some of them include:

• Old Exam Papers for Grades 8. 10 and 12 students to download
• Online Practice Test Questions with Answers. Feedback is also provided at the end of each test.
• Teachers Mathematics revision resources for use with students 
• Education department Apps and Links to on-demand webpages
• Maths Examinations Tips and Guides

Latest features of MER: Online Skill Practice Test and Answers

There are two latest additions to the MER website. First, the Basic Numeracy Skill Online Test/Assessment. It is basically a check-point of the functional ability (learnt skill) of students at upper primary and lower secondary schools - Grades 5 - 8. 

There are 50 multiple choice questions arranged by difficulty level from low to high. The test is split into 4 parts - each takes less than 5 minutes to do. See it here.

Latest features of MER: Free Download of Grade 10 Old Exam Questions & Answers (2010 - 2014 Math Exam Qtn Compilation)

 The second feature is the compilation of 2010 - 2014 Math Exam Questions by Unit. Free to download and use. Great for both teachers and students at Grade 10 

If your child, a sibling, friend or someone you know is in Grade 10 encourage them to check out the past exam papers and revision materials on the *new* website, MER. 

The resource booklet is 33 pages, but quick to download as the PDF was compressed to just 3.45 MB (from a 16.9 MB). 

It is watermarked to protect the originality of the document. If you want to remove the watermark and use it in class or for other educational purposes, please email us at info@pnginsight.com

Visit the Grade 12 General math and Advanced math old exam papers pages here> GM/AM revision materials

Please do share the work or leave a comment. Enjoy!

What Can Papua New Guinea Curriculum Developers Learn From Singapore’s Maths Mastery Lessons

Researchers in the article (shown on the right) compared mathematics ‘teaching methods’ in the UK to the Singaporean method. Their finding revealed that ‘students taught using problem solving strategy learn faster than their counterparts – ‘making an extra month of progress in a calendar year’.  That’s impressive.

Another point worth reiterating is that student’s ability to do well in maths can be enhanced by tweaking it at certain time. 

The report highlighted that ‘even a small enhancement at age 10 yields long term economic benefits for individual and the country’.

Singapore’s maths mastery concentrates on problem-solving

If PNG students were to do well in mathematics, maths teachers have to look at ways to create resources targeted at developing student’s problem-solving skills, ideally students between the ages of 9 and 16 years. 

Take a look at Singapore’s mastery class. A good example has been indicated – using three wooden bars to find three consecutive numbers that add up to 42. Papua New Guinean (and English, US, NZ and Australian) teachers would solve this by trial and error or by using algebra.

Method one: By trial and error - choose 3 numbers at random. Start at 10, 11, 13 (=34); 11, 12, 13, (=36); 12, 13, 14 (=39) and 13, 14, 15 (=42)

Three numbers are 13, 14 and 15

Method 2: By using algebra - let the first number be x, second number x + 1 and third number x + 2

            x + x + 1 + x + 2 = 42

             3x + 3 = 42

             3x       = 39

                       x       = 13

Three numbers are 13, 14 and 15

Importance of Maths Mastery Lessons 

This is not about a complete shift in teaching styles. This is about enhancement – creating ‘power lesson’ effective enough to enrich students ability on a weekly or monthly basis.

The importance of helping students to learn faster and think for themselves is far superior to preparing students for examinations. There has to be a balance between building strong problem-solving skills and preparing students to achieve good grades. 

What Singaporean schools have done can also be done in Papua New Guinea. Giving students the best possible opportunity to improve their maths skills on a regular basis, and above all, prepare them for life.