The Vanuatu government plans to raise main school examinations from year six to year eight in a bid to tackle youth unemployment, crime, and teenage pregnancies
Year six children are generally about 12 years of age and, if they fail the examination, they have to leave the school system.
The president of the Vanuatu teachers' union, Wenjio Temau says they then return to their families, unskilled and unqualified.
"Normally when children pass the exam at the end of year six continue on their education. Others, they drop out in very early age. They just roaming around in the village. They do fishing, they run around in the gardens and they ruin (laughing).."
The president of the Vanuatu teachers' union, Wenjio Temau.
