Education key To a successful Future and Students need To take advantage Of opportunities

Young people cannot afford to drop education as a priority in life. Unless you are exceptionally gifted and able to carve your niche without formal education, it is incumbent on the rest to pursue an education in an area of interest.

Take for example, Sam Morgan. In 1999, the New Zealand university student was going through a frustrating experience trying to buy a heater for his cold flat. He designed Trade Me, an online auction site. It became a household name and in 2006 he sold it to Australian media company Fairfax for more than NZ$700 million. Obviously he had built up enough knowledge and skills to embark on an ambitious project.

That is why education in the formative years of a child is very important. The Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, this week opened two new kindergartens.

These kindergartens highlight the importance of pre-school before primary and then secondary education. They lay the foundation to a child’s future. Yesterday, Mr Bainimarama opened four new classrooms at Veisaru Dharam School in Ba.

The school was given a Government grant to build these classrooms. The money spent is an investment for the future of the children in this rural community. Mr Bainimarama challenged the students to invest in themselves.

That means they must take their education seriously. It means not missing school, doing their assignments/ homework and study/revision. Every day counts.

Students can sacrifice their social life if they are really committed to passing their examinations. Some students can still do well in a balancing act. Mr Bainimarama has a good advice: “Think of every day in class not as a chore, but as an opportunity, your parents and grand-parents may not have been so lucky to have had the chance to go to school, and they certainly didn’t have as many great career paths at their feet as you do today.”

That is true. In this journey, parental support is vital. Without it students may fall short of their academic goals.

There are no excuses today. Students do not have to pay school fees, bus fares and textbooks.

We can have the best classrooms, best facilities and best teachers, but if the students fail to take advantage of these, then opportunities go to waste.

They can be like Sam Morgan, if they want to seize the opportunities that come their way. Mr Bainimarama says put your head down and study hard, anything is possible.

“You can create any future you want for yourself, and choose the life you want to live. Never before has Fiji been so filled with potential, so I urge you to take full advantage of it,” he says.

Their future destiny is in their hands.