The Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) is encouraged to support year four students in reading. PILNA data show that less than half the year four students performed at or above the minimum proficiency level in reading. One policy suggestion is for all schools to have a programme where all students drop everything and read. The ministry should also make every effort to strengthen the supply of books to schools. 

The MEHA is encouraged to investigate and narrow the gap in achievement between boys and girls in numeracy, reading and writing. PILNA has consistently found that girls outperform boys in all the domains. This gender disparity in achievement is a matter of concern as the pattern has been the same for the last four cycles of PILNA. 

The MEHA is encouraged to provide supplementary training for teachers in the development and use of classroom-based informal and formative assessment. Teachers are to identify specific needs of students, tailor instruction to meet these needs and monitor the effectiveness of the instruction to optimise student learning.  

The MEHA is encouraged to provide training for teachers to develop items that target interpretation of information, critical thinking and problem-solving and to ensure that students are able to positively respond to these types of questions. High order thinking skills are always a challenge in students’ learning. If students are provided with these types of questions in the classroom, and teachers assist the students to arrive at the desired response, there should be an encouraging result in the next cycle of PILNA. 

The MEHA is encouraged to undertake further exploration of the PILNA 2021 cognitive and contextual data sets, along with other relevant data sets, to better understand the challenges facing students and teachers in Fiji. The findings can be used to target support and intervention in Fiji’ education system, with the goal of strengthening numeracy, reading and writing instruction leading to improved student learning outcomes. 

Teachers are encouraged to support year four and year six students in the numeracy concepts of place value, fractions, measurements, time difference and problem-solving. The PILNA data highlighted the areas where students struggle and should provide interventions to support these students.