Permanent Secretary for Education Dr Brij Lal. File Photo.
The Ministry of Education is urging schools in the North to attain better results for the National Toppers program.
Ministry permanent secretary Dr Brij Lal in a recent leadership workshop attended by principals and head teachers from the Macuata and Bua province, encouraged them to achieve 20 per cent or more for the National Toppers Scheme.
Dr Lal also reminded these Northern schools to get its students to target 300 marks and above but also reminded them to focus on government priority areas.
The government priority areas in terms of Diplomas and Certificates include: 17 in Tourism, 47 in Engineering, 25 Mining and Milling, 171 Medicine & Health, 85 Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, 17 Technology, 17 Environment / Marine Science, 25 Land/Town Planning, 20 Commerce, 1 Social Sciences, 128 Teacher Training, 47 Special Areas of High Priority.
The divisional education officer northern Satya Shandil said that the constant and consistent visits that they had and programs such as the Leaders workshop are some of the strategies which they had in place to keep them focused on their target.
“Last year we in the North had achieved 15% of the National Toppers program. This year we are working to ameliorate that and we had already visited our identified struggling schools and had provided all possible assistance,” Mr Shandil said.
The LANA (Literacy and Numeracy) program is equally important since there is a great need for our youngsters to grasp the basics for their future in education. Once the students in our primary schools had comprehended what Literacy and Numeracy is basically all about, I believe they will go a long way,” Mr Shandil said.
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