South Pacific Form Seven Certificate

The South Pacific Form Seven Certificate (SPFSC)is an accredited course in Pacific Island nations that serves as a recognised qualification to enter tertiary studies or secure employment.

The SPFSC programme offers 14 subjects (Mathematics with Calculus, Mathematics with Statistics, English, French, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Accounting, Economics, Geography, History, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Agriculture, and Tourism and Hospitality). All subjects have  internal assessment components and an external examination.

The internal assessment (IA) consists of between two and four tasks, which are developed and moderated by qualified professionals, under the stringent supervision of EQAP's Curriculum and Assessment team. 

The SPFSC curriculum is informed by the constructive alignment principle which inspires an outcomes-based approach. SPFSC teachers, school leaders and coordinators receive training in the outcomes-based approach, which uses the Structure of Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy for the constructive alignment of the curriculum, pedagogy and assessments.

In addition to these training workshops, other SPFSC quality assurance processes also include study guides, the use of an online system (PacSIMS) to record and manage internal assessment scores, stringent moderation of examination papers and scoring rubrics, the tagging of specific learning outcomes to the assessment items in the assessment tasks, and final verification of IA reports by EQAP's curriculum and assessment team.

The professionals tasked with the development, moderation and scoring of SPFSC assessments are teachers and retired teachers who specialise in one or two of the SPFSC subjects on offer. These professionals are required to successfully complete the micro-qualification in the development of assessment instruments in order to be considered for work as SPFSC consultants. This accredited micro-qualification was initially delivered by EQAP but will soon be delivered by accredited teaching institutions.

Since the realignment of the SPFSC curriculum to the constructivist approach in 2017, students' results have significantly improved across the board, including in the remotest SPFSC schools. In 2020, despite the long periods of lockdown in the Pacific Island countries caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, SPFSC students' posted an impressive 89 per cent pass rate. This achievement was largely possible due to the online learning platform provided via the SPFSC Moodle through which students and teachers could access everything related to the SPFSC curriculum, instruction and assessment. 

The SPFSC Moodle hosts various teaching and learning resources, including:

• Syllabi
• Study guides (lesson notes and lesson activities)
• Digital resources (videos, tutorials, presentations)
• Laboratory manuals
• Interactive assessments (for revisional purpose to be made live from the mid of the year)
• Assessments (internal assessment task information, task submission, grading and feedback)
• SPFSC teacher training
• SPFSC information pack and resources for teachers (forms, manuals, past year exam papers and scoring rubrics, chief scorers' reports, sample scripts, etc.)

SPFSC is a highly accredited qualification in the region, which means the SPFSC students are accepted for undergraduate programmes in the region as well as internationally. Tertiary institutions in the following countries and in many other countries around the world recognise the SPFSC qualification:

• Fiji (USP, FNU, FCA, University of Fiji)
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• France
• Australia
  • QTAC - Queensland Universities
  • UAC - Universities of the New South Wales (UNSW) and ACT
  • VTAC - Victorian Universities (including Monash University and the University of Melbourne)
• New Zealand
• China
• Malaysia
• United States of America