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Access to textbooks
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 Tonga reported that 18% of year four students and 37% of year six students had their own literacy textbooks. For numeracy, 18% of year four and 28% of year six students were reported as having their own numeracy textbooks (refer to Table TT2.1).
About one out of five students do not have a literacy or numeracy textbook, or only the teacher had the textbook, across both year levels.
There were large differences seen across the 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 the range was 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?
Access to textbooks varies throughout Tongan schools, creating different learning environments for students, depending on the school they attend. The reasons for this are not known. It may be that textbooks are not deemed necessary by some schools or that year four students are in less need of textbooks to learn from.
