Papua New Guinea's Minister of Higher Education says efforts are being made to improve the intake of students from secondary school.
A new report prepared by the Office of Higher Education has found that only 4500 of the 17,000 students who sat national exams last year were selected for tertiary institutions.
Malakai Tabar says Higher Education is working to streamline accreditation so to better direct students towards suitable career paths whether it be a vocational programme, technical college, or study in science and innovations.
He says new tertiary institutions such as the Western Pacific University in Southern Highlands province, and a couple of polytechnics, are being established.
"As the programme of accreditation and assessment is able to push redirect or push students through to a certain area of academic work, then we make sure that we can achieve those areas, achieving them through those other institutions that we are establishing."
