THE Year 6 to 7 National Placement Committee is currently attending a two-week meeting in Honiara to deliberate on the 2025 placement of Year 6 pupils into Year 7.
The meeting begun on Monday 9th December and will be concluded on Friday 20th December, and is held at the St Barnabas Cathedral Hall.
The Year 6 to 7 National Placement Committee is made up of 40 Education Providers. There is a committee set up by each Education Provider – who collects assessment data of year 6 pupils in the schools they operate.
Each year, the Year 6 to 7 National Placement Committee comprised of Education Providers and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development meets around November- December period, to determine and confirm Year 6 pupils placements into Year 7 in the following year in secondary schools throughout the country.
This is an annual event that is conducted since the MEHRD terminated the Secondary Entrance Examination in 2019, which primary school pupils sat at the end of Year 6 primary education, and replaced it with a classroom based assessment regime, giving teachers a central role in assessment of their pupils’ learning.
One of the key criteria used to determine Year 6 to 7 placement is students’ performance in the teacher-designed assessment tasks in the subjects they study in Year 6, which include; mathematics, English, social studies, science etc.
Year 6 pupils’ scores in the assessment tasks in each subject are recorded and compiled by the teachers and passed on to each Education Provider Placement Committee and used to qualify Year 6 pupils’ placements in Year 7 secondary schools the following year.
The annual meeting of the National Year 6 to 7 Placement Committee ensures the default placement lists determined by each Education Provider (for the schools they own and operate) are reconciled to avoid any duplication or renegotiation of placement, consolidated, verified and approved.
The final Year 7, 2025 Placement List is presented to the Permanent Secretary for vetting and final approval.
Addressing, at the opening of the meeting, Permanent Secretary Dr Franco Rodie called on the Education Providers to improve not only the assessment processes but also administration of students scores in the subjects they are assessed on by their teachers.
He recommended two options to improve the governance and management of Year 6 assessment and Year 7 placement regime. One option he proposed was to give the Year 7 selection and placement responsibility to education providers. The second option was; to give the responsibility to the National Examination Assessment Division to oversee the placement of Year 6 students into Year 7.
Dr Rodie also reiterated the need to review the Year 6 assessment and Year 7 placement with the view to increase Year 6 teachers’ assessment capabilities and management of the assessment program and keeping records of student assessment scores so as to improve their analysis, recording and presentation to their respective education providers, and the MEHRD.
