Enabling education

The 2019 education year is set to start. With Government doing its utmost to see that no child is left behind in accessing education there still remain some challenges.

The child’s right to education is very well enshrined in the Fijian constitution and the Government is deeply committed in seeing that this is realised.

Government, through many policies, has targeted educational reforms so that we remain in par with other developed countries in improving quality education.

Sceptics may argue that some policies may have not been that successful, however, overall our education system has progressed a lot. Although increased enrolment rate and more students attending tertiary institutions are not the only indicators of educational success, but this at least points out that we are heading in the right direction.

Major progress has been made towards improving gender parity index, technical and vocational education and inclusive education.

One of the glaring things that really struck me was that Government through its National Development Plan has elucidated very eloquently of how they are going to achieve all this.

This is then successively aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. In my view this is a very good thing. Obtaining quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.

However, the biggest challenge for the Government remains to be how with the resources they have will allow them to push for new boundaries in promoting sustainable quality education which is going to take us until 2030.

I wish all the teachers and students the very best for the new academic year.