Surging Secondary School Enrollments Demands TVET Expansion

A surge in secondary school enrollments across the country prompts a pressing need for tertiary institutions and higher education (HEI) spaces to expand their capacity to meet this growing demand. 

This year alone, over 249,000 secondary and primary school (Grade 8, 10 and 12) students were taking the annual national examinations, showing the increasing number of students pursuing further education.

Stats That Matter

In a press conference just before the national examinations (01/08/2023), Secretary of Education Dr. Uke Kombra stated that approximately 249,189 students would be sitting for their exams nationwide. 

This includes a significant number of:

• Grade 10 students (76,571) from 448 Lower Secondary Schools, 
• Grade 12 students (31,252) from 221 Upper Secondary Schools and National Schools of Excellence (NSOA), and 
• Grade 8 students (141,366) from 3,538 Primary schools. 

Notably, a separate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) exam will be administered to 324 Grade 12 students at the National School of Excellence.

Here is data from previous years showing the number of Grade 12 students transiting through the Department of Higher Education (DHERST) national online selection system (NOAS).

Remarkable increase in the number of students

A comparison with last year reveals a remarkable increase in the number of students taking national examinations. 

In 2022, approximately:

• 71,000 Grade 10 students from 413 high schools and secondary schools, 
• 31,000 Grade 12 students from 218 secondary schools and NSOA, and 
• 125,000 Grade 8 students from 3,433 primary schools participated in the same examinations.

The government must urgently address the huge demand for higher education in Papua New Guinea. With intervention, the country will see a lot of students staying in school and becoming unemployed.

TVET Expansion: Target Grades 8, 10 & 12

The increasing number of secondary school students calls for a significant expansion of tertiary institutions and higher education facilities to meet the rising demand. 

To equip students with the skills and knowledge needed for the job market and prepare them for success in their communities, the TVET sector needs to be expanded rapidly. 

Provincial governors and education funds from MPs' DSIP and PSIP should be directed towards these initiatives.

Final words

More students are taking national exams this year (2023) than last year (2022). This is because more students are enrolled in secondary school. There are now more students taking exams in Grade 10, Grade 12, and Grade 8. 

To meet the growing demand for higher education, the government should expand tertiary education infrastructure, especially focusing on TVET programs. 

Grade 10 and 12 Students Population in PNG - Examination Data

Only 9,371 out of the 27,143 grade 12 students who applied for places in tertiary institutions for next year have been accepted.

Given the workings of the formal education system, 17,772 students (about 67 per cent) will be left out to fend for themselves.

This year, a total of 30,000 students from 188 secondary and the six national high schools sat the grade 12 national exams.

While, the PNG Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology secretary Fr Jan Czuba blamed the poor grades on the Covid-19 which forced disruption to the school year, the high number of students being pushed out of this career path keeps increasing.

Why should it be the same old story again of parents bemoaning their children’s lack of luck and sense of failure and being not good enough? Only a few thousand will proceed to the next level of education, as dictated by the education system’s type of natural selection, where the most academically fit to survive and proceed to another stage of schooling.

The education sector will continue to experience problems at all levels from elementary to tertiary.

These problems in part are unavoidable for a developing economy such as PNG.

In pre-independence times, the challenge the colonial government faced was building up the ranks of skilled workers among the local population to eventually take over the Australian administration.

The challenge then was really about getting as many of the best and brightest students to study and train to become the nation’s first administrators and managers as well as filling in the other positions in society in health, education, industry and so on.

But in today’s time, it is the other way around.

There are a lot more students, many of them bright, capable and keen to learn to better themselves, but they are faced with a range of challenges, one of which is the limited number of spaces available.

With the bottleneck forming at the university/college level, the system has responded with a quota system to deal with the space problem.

This quota system has been achieved twofold.

First, there is the grade point average system and then there are the selection criteria in which students, in their year 12 school lever form, pick their top-three preferred institutions.

The first choice is a luxury in this country and it’s so critical and that’s not our control.

It has come to a stage where the second and third choices can no longer earn you space in a tertiary institution.

It is clear that the number of learning institutions simply cannot accommodate the growing ranks of students pouring into the secondary and tertiary levels on a yearly basis.

As far as absorbing the thousands of graduates from the secondary level is concerned, the reality on the ground is grim.

The rest of these school-leavers are left to fend for themselves either in the job market or in private education institutions – if they can afford it.

The problem is clear but the solutions are not so easy to come by.

It will be interesting to see what the Government can come up within the next two years to address this.

Source: The National 

Students Taking Exams: 63, 535 Grade 10 Students, 24, 710 Grade 12 Students and 124, 095 Grade 8 Students

A total of 212,340 students in Grades 8, 10 and 12 are going to sit their final examinations starting next week with the Lower Secondary School Certificate Examination (Grade 10).
A total of 63, 535 Grade 10 students will sit the examination which starts on Monday, October 10 and ends on Friday, October 14.

Following that, the Upper Secondary School Certificate Examinations (Grade 12) begins on Monday, October 17 and ends on Wednesday, October 26. A total of 24, 710 students are sitting this exam.

The Basic Education Examination will follow on Monday, October 24 and ends on Thursday, October 27. This exam will see a total of 124, 095 Grade 8 students throughout the country sitting for it.

Acting Education Secretary Dr. Uke Kombra, PhD said these examinations are very important for the students because they contribute to their final assessments for the year.

Click on the image to see 2015 figures 

“School assessments are very important because they determine whether students can be selected to the next level of education or get employed,” Dr Kombra added.

He urged parents, guardians and teachers to give as much support as possible to help students sit these examinations.

The Acting Secretary also reminded everyone to ensure that there is no cheating in these examinations.

“The penalty for cheating or assisting to cheat in the National Examination is Non Certification. I urge the External invigilators, Schools and Standards Officers to report any malpractices to the Measurement Services Division for analysis and action,” said Dr Kombra.

He urged all concerned parties to make every effort to give all the students and schools “a fair go” and to be honest and sayNOto examination cheating.

2016

“On behalf of the Department of Education I wish all our Grade 10, 12 and 8 students the very best in their examinations," said Dr Kombra.

NOTE: To compare the figures for the past years, click on the image or follow this link.

Source: Loop Author 17:45, October 8, 2016