Onus on parents To guide Children
Parents must make time and pay attention to the needs of their children. This wsa the message made by the Minister for Industry, Trade, Tourism, Lands and Mineral Resources Faiyaz Koya during the Pre-School Week launch at the Krishna Vedic Kindergarten in Nausori yesterday. This year’s Pre-School Week theme is “Quality early childhood and education-Everyone’s responsibility”.
“Our next generation will face a more rapidly changing world than what we had experienced decades ago,” Mr Koya said.
“Globalisation, the advent of information technology and the development of a knowledge-based society are leading to changes at an unprecedented rate.
“In the face of the changes ahead, we need to equip our future generations to be ‘life-long learners’ and with the ability to ‘learn how to learn’, so that they can keep abreast of changes and become active and valuable members of our community.”
Mr Koya said apart from knowledge children needed to develop skills to acquire, construct and communicate knowledge. “While a school is an important place for children’s education, family members play an equally critical role in the development of a child,” he said.
“In particular, parents are instrumental in the personal growth and attitude of children towards life.
“A big challenge for us, as parents or educators, is to equip our children with the knowledge, skills, and values for all-round and wholeperson development.” Meanwhile, Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Veena Bhatnagar officiated at the inaugural Early Childhood Education (ECE) celebrations at the Nadi Centre for Special Education yesterday.
She noted that with over 150 million children aged 3-5 were not having access to pre-primary education around the world, Fijian children were among the lucky ones to have this educational aspect a compulsory part of their education system.