4 terms all part of FijiFirst’s plan

FORMER education minister Premila Kumar dismissed comments from The Fiji Times that it took a global pandemic for the FijiFirst government to come up with a four-term school year.

She claimed the FijiFirst administration did not introduce four school terms earlier because of “other changes”.

Ms Kumar yesterday described as “regressive” Education Minister Aseri Radrodro’s announcement that Fiji would revert to the three-term school year.

She said having fourterms would benefit students and teachers by providing much-needed breaks between teaching and learning.

When asked if the fourterm school year was so advantageous, why hadn’t their government introduce it before the pandemic, she said: “The fact is that during that time, over a period of time, there were other changes being made to the education sector.

“Let’s not forget that with free education system, school management grant being given, there were a lot of other changes taking place and this was the other change that we introduced last year for this year.”

Ms Kumar said the four -term year “worked well”.

She also said revolutionary programs took time to roll out.

“You cannot introduce everything in first year or second year, its spread out.

“Like, for example, we did the announcement that the enrolment for Year One students, we had made the decision last year that five-yearolds can enrol in Year One and this would have come into effect in 2024. That was another change that was being planned.

“And why 2024? A lot of planning is required because extra classrooms have to be built.”