Movement Make Suggestions on Education, Housing and Health
Ms Singh highlighted that there was a need for a review of skills training programmes – to re-establish the apprenticeship schemes.
Calls of strengthening the primary healthcare system were made last Friday during the National Economic Summit.
This was highlighted by Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) executive director Nalini Singh while presenting on human development.
Ms Singh said this included a need for innovative technologies, and registries to harness, analyse, and share for effective policy decisions-based on data, including gender-responsive budgeting.
She said improvement and strengthening data collection played key roles in the recommended approach.
Ms Singh also highlighted the challenges faced in the health sector including the key factors of addressing non-communicable diseases, Fiji Medicare insurance, and expansion of facilities through decentralisation of the Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
Education
In the education and training sector, she said in the human resource field, there needed to be more innovative ways to address service gaps.
In education, she said, the thematic group reckoned for a base grant platform, teachers to student ratio to be evaluated and curriculum to be reviewed.
Housing
In housing and urban development, she said there is a lack of good governance on housing policies and a need for proper scheme plans.
Setting out their recommendation on what could be done, there was a need for a housing symposium, a transformative shift in the curriculum and programmes. She said this included reviewing the existing Labour mobility policy – focusing on the social impact.
Ms Singh highlighted that there was a need for a review of
skills training programmes – to re-establish the apprenticeship schemes.