Fiji to introduce scouting for last term of school classes

Transcript

Fiji will introduce scouting in its junior high school grades to account for weeks of free time between exams and the end of the academic year.

The Education Minister Mahendra Reddy says students in year 6 and 8, especially those not from rural areas, will benefit greatly from the life skills on offer.

He spoke with Alex Perrottet.

MAHENDRA REDDY: So that's' what we're looking at, to engage the year eight students, in terms of making them a better citizen, in terms of giving them those skills that normally they wouldn't get from the formal curriculum. These are the skill they need, you know because they are in comfort zones within the comfort of their family, they don't normally pick up those. Like tying of knots, I know in our days you know I come from a farming background and therefore I know various types of knots but these students nowadays, most of them are not from that particular background. So we are looking at scouting as a means of equipping them with the skills that will make them a better and well-rounded member of society.

ALEX PERROTTET: Now is the Boy Scout organisation going to be out sourced to run that or are you talking scouting as a general idea that the education ministry itself will run?

MR: No it will be a ministry activity, you know we want to develop a package. At the moment the way scouting is done there also end up an outside school activities and camping. That will not be compulsory, some parents may not want their child to be taken on camps on the weekend etc. So that won't be compulsory but our idea is to equip students with these skills which are important for any child as they are growing up so we are not looking at making it compulsory so those aspects which parents may have some issues with. So it will be in the school, after final exams, the year eight final exams and we want to keep it, not in the formal structure, we want to keep it quite informal so that students enjoy it, learning those skills.

AP: Is this linked at all to your concerns about the health of young children, we've had a discussion about suicide this year and you're talking about a national discourse. Ten children under 16 years old unfortunately took their lives this year, is that a cause for you to sit back and think, right what are we going to do to give students a well-rounded education and help their families out in that regard?

MH: It's part of that, but there's a separate strategy that we will roll out next year to deal with the issue of suicides. And this will add in terms of making their lives more interesting in the school system and also giving them the idea that there's a lot more exciting life awaiting them and therefore I think we need to deal with it holistically in terms of really moulding them and giving them a a not only formal curriculum based education but a broader education which gives them hope to become a leading citizen of the country.