Nuku'alofa, 8 September 2015. The Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva has revealed that recent progressive analysis of quality education in Tonga has shown that the rate of students passing their exams has been declining over the last decade.

On the tiny, heavily Christian island of Tonga, churches dot the landscape and choirs can be heard singing on any day of the week.

Among the 20 new Church leaders that Pope Francis made members of the College of Cardinals on Saturday was Bishop Soane Patita Mafi from the Polynesian archipelago of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean.  At just 53 years of age, he becomes the youngest member of the College of Cardinals, as well as the first man in the history of this young Church to receive this honour.