Compulsory and free education is a powerful tool towards the eradication of child labour.
This was highlighted today by the Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Hon. Dr Mahendra Reddy at the Student Leadership Seminar on Child Labour in Labasa.
“Government has time and again announced that one of its greatest investments is education. The Government of the day intends to ensure that all Fijians are given equal opportunities and accessibility to get themselves educated. A lot of emphasis is placed on an educated society which will in future inject that much needed empowerment, skills and knowledge in all Fijians to progress productively,” Minister Reddy said.
Government has also devised policies and avenues such as, free education, transport assistance, wheat-bix and milk, TELS scheme, free text books, revised curriculum, competent teachers, upgraded infrastructure and continued initiatives and reforms to make education accessible.
“Children belong in school and that is where they must be. No child should be forced to stay at home for whatever reason, as it is unlawful and against the constitution of this country. Added to this, we have set up other avenues for our children such as, the Technical College campuses,” Minister Reddy said.
The Education Ministry evaluated that there was an urgent need to step in and recover the situation where students were blindly pushed into academic streams when realistically they either could not cope up with the demands or didn’t have interest in that subject area.
“There was no avenue to understand and appreciate the interests of these students which led to them dropping out of school and falling prey to people who gave them work under exploitative conditions. The children had no choice as other situational factors such as poverty, peer pressure and social issues compounded to force them to work, even though their physical self and emotional ability could not cope with such demands,” Minister Reddy said.
Dr Reddy added that Fiji intend to fight child labour with education and getting all children in educational institutions and educating the public and community at large on safety, care and protecting children’s rights.
“The Ministry of Education has implemented, reviewed and re-implemented a Child Protection Policy in the education system. This has been made keeping in mind the welfare and wellbeing of the child. In the school environment, we intend to give the child that freedom and right to exercise their rights so that they become well-informed citizens of our beloved nation. This initiative combined with values and virtues education forms the basis to prepare our children holistically,” Minister Reddy said.