By GEORGINA MICHAEL
The Education Department will remove the selection system for Grades 8 and 10 starting in 2026, Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra says.
He said this would enable students complete their 13 years of education from Elementary to Grade 12 without dropping out of the system after Grade 8 or Grade 10.
“We have made a deliberate policy as you may have heard it from the Minister for Education Mr Lucas Dawa Dekena. I am restating our position and policy that we want to remove selections from our school system. Any student who comes into prep must go all the way and complete Grade 12 where there shouldn’t be dropout selections, especially at Grades 8,” Dr Kombra said.
“We will be working with the provinces to eliminate this policy, or the practice that we have where there’s a selection of students going from grade eight to nine and 10 to 11. Removing this will enable every student to have a rank and will complete 13 years of education, from prep all the way up to year 12.”
Six provinces with the highest number of transitioning students and facilities are prepared to take this on board. These provinces are namely, Hela, Enga, Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Eastern Highlands and Western.
These provinces will start with the elimination of grade eight selections and will continue with the grade 10 selections. The provinces are going to start implementing this beginning next year 2026 and the other provinces will follow in the coming years.
Dr Kombra clarified that selections would be removed but students would still sit for their national exams. Those students with low exam results can also consider taking up FODE lessons as well to upgrade their exam results or attend vocational training training while working their way back to Grade 11.
“Education is a right to every citizen and so there is work in progress to remove the selection systems so that every student gets to finish 13 years of their education journey before entering tertiary institutions,” Dr Kombra said.
Why doing exams, when there will be no selections.
Well that’s nice but we also need job opportunity to increase so those students must atleas be employed.
I believe this system are going to increase the number of qualified professionals and they need to be employed .
This action will have pyramid clashes in students learning and the entry into higher institutions. This is because students behaviour and discipline are worse these days than before. Otherwise, bring in corporal punishment and then take quality control on the quarterly funds for most of the schools in each province. Board of management and HTs used to provide false acquittals, and some of those provincial inspectors and advisors have fear of telling truth. Use different audits teams to collect information and data.
I am so concerned about it because teachers are the only implementation team that are becoming something like robots to look for text books, resource books and other stationery just to plan and teach lessons whilst the board members and admin in few provinces are expecting these teachers to use the forthnights to purchase all these resources.
There are few institutions that are intentionally misusing tff funds in some provinces. I don’t know such is happening in other schools but airing some of the things in response to the eradication of the grades 8 and 10 examination systems. Concerned teacher and citizen. Thanks! Good God bless!
It is an outdated policy and doesn’t have any place in the ever increasing population of the nation’s economic growth. The policy of selection is now meaning less.
For this policy to effectively work, all schools should have a screening process in every grades. Those students with better grades should be allowed to continue to the next grade.
I am implementing a filtering system in every grades at my school and it’s unanimously agreed and accepted by parents.
Teddy Piagari
Head Teacher
Koglamp Primary School
Western Highlands Province
Great policy!
Fucked up system stop it!!! Please minister walk around the schools especially rurals schools and see it yourself if we have enough facilities to accommodate influx of students.
Agree with the proposed decision by the secretary for education so each school should focus on infrastructure.
Tumb up
Bold discision, keep up the good work 👏
Support this idea of removing selection system, like grade 8s and 10s
Education system is rights for the people of Papua New Guinea🙏
By doing this, you should increase the salary of teachers all across the nation!
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