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 Tonga whose teachers expressed confidence in teaching literacy topics.

Overall, most 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 68% to 96%.

Across both year levels, areas where a lower proportion of students had teachers who expressed confidence were: ‘Quality of ideas’ (year four, 68%; year six, 71%) and ‘Organisation and structure’ (year four, 69%; year six, 74%) in writing. Areas with the highest proportions of students having teachers who expressed confidence were ‘Spelling and punctuation’ (year four, 93%; year six, 84%); ‘Vocabulary (year four, 84%; year six, 84%); and ‘Letter sound correspondence’ (year four, 96%; year six, 83%).

Areas where more students had confident teachers appear to be rules-based subjects or those with more established teaching criteria, such as ‘Spelling and 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 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). The significant findings are listed below.

• Female teachers were more confident in teaching literacy than male teachers.
• Teachers who had a degree level or higher qualification were more confident than teachers who did not.
• Teachers with less experience in teaching (less than 10 years) expressed more confidence in teaching literacy than teachers with more experience (more than 10 years).

Table TT2.9 below 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 ranged between 71% and 94%, a similar range to literacy topics.

Across both year levels, the topics where a lower proportion of students had teachers who expressed confidence were ‘Fractions and percentages’ (year four, 77%; year six, 74%) and ‘Measurement’ (year four, 75%; year six, 71%). Topics with the highest proportions of students whose teacher expressed confidence were ‘Place value’ (year four, 94%; year six, 88%) and ‘Numbers and patterns’ (year four, 93%; year six, 88%).

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). There were no gender or teaching experience differences for numeracy teaching confidence, but significant differences were found.

• Teachers who had a degree level or higher qualification were more confident in teaching numeracy than teachers who did not.
• Teachers who were in the older age range (over 35 years old) were more confident in teaching numeracy than teachers in the younger age range (20–35 years old).