For reporting purposes, teachers who responded with ‘Easy’ or ‘Very easy’ were considered to demonstrate confidence in teaching a particular topic.

Table TT2.7 shows the percentage of students in Solomon Islands whose teachers expressed confidence in teaching literacy topics.

Overall, more than half the students in both year levels had teachers who were confident in teaching literacy topics. In both year levels, the proportions of students with such teachers ranged from 52% to 91%.

Across both year levels, aspects of literacy where more students had teachers who expressed less confidence in teaching were ‘Organisation and structure’ and ‘Phonemic awareness’.

Areas where more students had confident teachers appear to be rules-based subjects or those with more established teaching criteria, such as spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary. Areas where fewer students had confident teachers appear to be in areas with more subjective, or more complex, teaching and assessment criteria, such as ‘Quality of ideas’ and ‘Organisation and structure’ in writing.

A greater proportion of students had teachers confident in teaching most aspects of literacy compared with PILNA 2018. Compared to the regional averages, however, teachers in Solomon Islands were, overall, less confident in teaching literacy.

A regional scale focused on measuring teachers’ confidence in teaching literacy based on teachers’ responses was established. Higher scores on this scale indicate higher levels of confidence in teaching literacy. The literacy teaching confidence scores were analysed against teacher demographics (gender, age, teaching experience, and qualification level). No significant differences were found between literacy teaching confidence and the various teacher qualities.

Table TT2.9 shows the percentage of students whose teachers expressed confidence in teaching numeracy topics.

Most students in both year levels had teachers who were confident in teaching numeracy topics. In both year levels, the proportion of students with confident teachers in the numeracy topics ranged between 78% and 99%, a slightly higher range than for literacy topics.

Across both year levels, aspects of numeracy where more students had teachers who expressed less confidence in teaching were ‘Numbers and patterns’ and ‘Place value’.

A greater proportion of students had teachers confident in teaching most aspects of numeracy compared with PILNA 2018.

A regional scale with nine items focused on measuring teachers’ confidence in teaching numeracy based on teachers’ responses was established. Higher scores on this scale indicate higher levels of confidence in teaching numeracy. As with literacy, the numeracy teaching confidence scores were compared to teachers’ demographic groups (gender, age, teaching experience, highest qualification).Only one association was found: male teachers were more confident in teaching mathematics than female teachers.