Fiji education reforms impress but challenges remain
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education says he's impressed with reforms to Fiji's education system but there are still areas that need attention.
Transcript
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education says he's impressed with reforms to Fiji's education system but there are still areas that need attention.
Kishore Singh, who's been visiting Fiji, says the country's education laws need updating and teachers need to have a better career path and pay.
Sally Round has more.
Kishore Singh says he's impressed with efforts to overcome the divide between the more well resourced schools in Fiji's towns and the poorer ones on remote islands.
"I must say there is a very high level of political commitment to a new national system of education which has the mission to build the one Fiji, one nation concept and overcome ethnic divide which has characterised the education system."
But Dr Singh says more attention needs to go towards improving the quality of teaching.
"There is really a need for stepping up the teaching profession, making it professionally motivated, socially better-esteemed, which is not the case. So there is a need to raise the salary and profile and to try to ensure that best qualified teachers are attracted to the profession and that the career prospectives are available to them which is not the situation."
The special rapporteur says Fiji has an innovative approach to technical and vocational training and he says the government is very conscious of raising the profile of this sector. But he says industry needs to provide more technical and financial support. Dr Kishore says if Fiji wants to put in place a stable education system there's an urgent need to put in place a very sound, forward-looking legal framework.
"The new constitution of 2013 is remarkable in providing for this right. But when you look at the Education Act, it is of 1978. I mean this is outdated. So what I then underlined and I pressed upon the government to modernise the national legislation in order to provide for universal access."
Dr Singh says the government has asked for his help in reforming the law. The Bainimarama government scrapped school fees nearly two years ago and used free education as one of the planks in its winning campaign for election last year. Kishore Singh says this has thrown up other challenges. He says communities may not now have a financial stake in their schools but they still have responsibilities and there needs to be a fostering of better engagement to ensure good governance.
"After all parents and teachers must co-operate to ensure that every child is in school and that every child gets good quality education and that responsibility lies with parents and teachers along with the government."
Dr Singh says more effort needs to go into promoting multilingualism particularly at the pre-school level as part of efforts to overcome the ethnic divide.
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