Corrections, Education Give Jerome Chance For Fresh Start
Twenty-five-year-old Lopeti Jerome is grateful to the Fiji Corrections Service and the Ministry of Education for giving him an opportunity to learn a trade. He hopes to use this new trade he’s learned to earn him an income when he is released. Mr Jerome is among inmates at Nasinu Vocational Centre, which was launched in an official declaration ceremony yesterday.
“This centre is a big help to me, especially for when I start my own family and I need to have a job,” Mr Jerome said.
He said the skills he has learned from the welding and fabrication workshop would be beneficial in the community that he will live in.
“We have a car at home that I used to drive, but I did not know anything about engines and this centre has enabled me to learn more about it.” Mr Jerome is hoping to get some hands-on work experience and receive his certificate before he is released so that he can further his studies at university.
Permanent Secretary for Education Alison Burchell said it was important for people to acknowledge that there was a need to keep children in the schooling system.
She said sometimes teachers needed to adapt their teaching styles to suit the needs of the student.
“In some instances where they are way ahead and they get bored we lose those children, students and we have too many students unfortunately dropping out of school,” Ms Burchell said.
“And as a result of that I am very happy with this partnership to ensure that we look after those children who have dropped out of school.”
She said as members of society, people needed to change the way they viewed each other so that they become more supportive of youths.
“At the end of the way we really want more people to be employed because we do not want people to be in poverty so part of that door that education holds the key to is getting people out of poverty,” Ms Burchell said.
“Because if people are in poverty they are much more likely to get involved in criminal activities.”
She said poverty sometimes forced people to do things that they would not do in an ideal world.
FCS Commissioner Francis Kean thanked the Education Ministry and the Fiji Higher Education Commission for their support in getting the instructors qualified in order for them to deliver.
“It is a very important training. A skill for life and a skill that will hopefully, as the intention behind all our rehabilitation programmes within the Fiji Corrections Service is, to reduce or not to make another social statistic.”