Tonga’s education system "bad", says PM

This is such a disappointing read! Learning styles (as it pertains to students) is a well-researched area of education which suggests that there are different “styles” of students who learn in different ways. Provision of different learning evaluation metrics such as internal assessments and examinations really just enables the system to target education to a more diverse demographic and it also supports the ideal of all individuals having equal opportunity to education.
Furthermore, to make sweeping generalisations labelling a majority of the Tongan workforce who hold tertiary qualifications as being "not eager to work" is equal to calling them “lazy” and is dangerous, uninformed and just downright rude! If I took that same attitude, then my definition of “lazy” would be opening a dictionary and finding that the antonym of “raw” is “cooked” and then applying that label to any system of education qualification that is not the “Raw Marks System". Faka’apa’apa atu.

Na'e tonu foki ke 'ave e fo'i fakakaukau koeni (theory) 'o fekau ha taha mei Tonga ke 'alu o ako kiai (thesis - kumi ha univesiti te nau tali) - fekau'aki mo e 'Raw Mark'. Pea ko e polokalama faka-komipiuta (software) ne tonu ke fa'u pea tesi ha ta'u 'e 1-5 koe'uhi ko e 'bugs' - ngaahi fehalaaki ke fakatonutonu, pea 'i ai mo e kau "tester" ke nau tesi e polokalama koia. Pea ko e founga ngaue faka-mamani lahi kuopau ke pailate'i (pilot-testing) e fo'i kaukau koia pe 'oku lelei ki he kakai e fonua koia pe 'ikai. Kaekehe, kuo mahua e ipu vai ia. Ko e me'a pe eni ke fai ko e lotu. Ko e lau koia e article ki he kau ako - nonga pe koe ia - ko e fakakata faka-politikale pe ia! 'Ofa ki Tonga

On following the events from last March, it is very evident the Education Policy has to be handled by only subject matter experts and educationalists and not by an IT consultant. Across the world, every Apex body responsible in their respective geography, work only with the advices of subject matter experts in educational fields, having decades of experience in policy and follow up on the outcome.
It is very unfortunate the current Ministry is not willing take advice from experts from the educational field, who have worked in the Pacific Region.
Until unless there is a fundamental shift in the approach to the problem, this will not get resolved, it will further cascade, resulting in a generation loss.