Education segments on Walesi from June 1

From Monday next week, Fijian students will have access to educational segments on the Government-owned Walesi platform.

The programme is a Government initiative aimed at keeping children occupied during the extended closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Rosy Akbar, the ministry is in the final stages of producing local segments for the platform.

This will be launched on Monday, June 1.

“It is going to be a three-hour programme with our staff teaching curriculum-based lessons so our children can access it on Walesi platform. There are programmes from Early Childhood to Year 13,” Ms Akbar said.

She said children, who do not have access to Walesi, should not panic.

“The whole idea is for this to be supplementary resources. I understand some families will not have access to Walesi, but if you look at it, these Walesi set boxes are available for free, there are a lot of families who can qualify to free Walesi set boxes,” she said.

“The plan now is to ensure these are supplementary resources and not the only resources that we are providing to our children.”

She said the ministry had kept school doors open for parents to pick up supplementary resources if they were unable to access them online.

“I don’t want parents and students to panic if they are not able to access the resources. No child will be disadvantaged if they are unable to access the resources,” she said.

The ministry is also studying what overseas countries are doing, especially in Australia and New Zealand, to see how Fiji can follow their best practices.

She said it was too early to schedule exam dates because it depends on the teachers’ ability to cope with the extended school closure and complete the syllabus.