Let’s groom our children well from home so they reflect good characters in public
The Government is not giving free education to our children so that they may do whatever pleases them, especially after school hours. Parents do not send their children to school to just go and listen, speak, read and write. They also go to gain moral values and discipline to complement what they have been taught at home.
Apparently today, there has been a 180-degree turn and one’s expectation of a more accommodating, understanding and respective society is slowly phasing out.
It is disappointing to see that students as young as those in primary school level do not know how to respect and be considerate of others in public places, such as buses, at bus stands, sports venues and events. An elderly citizen while in one of those ‘moving night club buses’ as most call it, heard a group of students yelling and speaking loudly in the bus in broad daylight.
These students from a prominent school in Suva obviously had a lot to say with foul words coming out of their mouths.
The elderly citizen had to raise his voice (which he probably did to his own children when disciplining them) to these group of students in the bus to be considerate of others.
But this should not have been the case.
It’s time stakeholders: family, faith-based organisations, school and support communities rally behind Government in building a peaceful, tolerant and progressive nation.
Nation building is everybody’s commitment from the youngest to the oldest regardless of ethnicity, creed or belief.
Discipline starts from home. Once parents teach discipline to their children from home things will fall into place as they move on to their schools, tertiary and beyond.
We were all students during our days and we had boarded school buses, laughed, chatted, sang during a sports tournament, excursion, retreat or exposition. However, the picture of a student putting his head out of the bus and shouting out a racist word to another student of another religious belief is something we as a nation should eliminate.
The picture of a student trying to argue with students from other schools over a sports result or basically over some petty issue should not be acceptable. The Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimara during a fundraiser at the Shree Sanatan Dharam Pratinidh Sabha over the weekend in Narere stressed that expanding access to high quality education is the greatest possible legacy for our children.
He said the policies that shape our development benefit our people on the basis of merit, on their positive contributions to our society.
“I believe that every Fijian regardless of our background, our beliefs, our status, where we live, deserves an equal role in the progress of our nation and an equal share in the prosperity we bring to our shores,” the Prime Minister said.
“It also means that as Fijians we should not discriminate against any of our fellow Fijians on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, race, province or social status,” he said.
“We should all work together.”
It is important to understand that Fiji is a tourist destination and we have tourists, foreign visitors in our country all the time especially in the urban populated areas.
Then everything starts at home, our children are our reflection.
Children, students let us not paint a negative picture of our friendly Fiji, because in the future you will sit in a place where your parents are today, looking at your own children.
If we are to build a nation, to understand the meaning of ‘Fijians’ and living together peacefully then it begins from our homes as our young will take the cue from what takes shape at home. Everything starts from home; let us play our part as the first teachers to our children.
This is not the response to the media attention we received. We let our action speak louder than our word. Yes, there was a mistake done by an employee but it was not the business. Sanjeev Chand Waste Clear (Fiji) Limited , director