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Access to textbooks
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Teachers were asked about the number of textbooks for literacy and numeracy that year four and year six students had access to. They were provided with five options to choose from.
- Each student has their own textbook.
- Two students share one textbook.
- More than two students share one textbook.
- Only the teacher has the textbook.
- No textbook is provided.
Student access to textbooks
On average, teachers in Fiji reported that 75% of year four students and 66% of year six students had their own literacy textbooks. For numeracy, the numbers were slightly lower, with 69% of year four and 63% of year six students having their own numeracy textbook, Table TT2.1. So, about two out of three students across the year levels had access to a personal textbook.
Very few year four and year six students in Fiji either had no literacy or numeracy textbook or only the teacher had a textbook (0–2%). The vast majority of students had access to textbooks to study from in some way.
There were large differences seen across the countries. In PILNA 2021 participating countries, the proportions of students having their own literacy and numeracy textbooks ranged from 0% to 87% for year four students, while for year six students, this difference was even higher, ranging from 0% to 100%.
The full range of teacher responses by literacy, numeracy, and year level is shown in Table TT2.2.
What does this mean?
Most students in Fiji have access to textbooks and the majority have their own textbook to study from.
Across the region, textbook access across both year levels varies significantly by country. This suggests that countries have distinct learning environments or textbook needs. As learning environments throughout the region are diverse, it is difficult to determine the effect on students that this textbook access variance may have.
