The Minister for Education, Heritage & Arts, Premila Kumar attended the 2nd Asia - Pacific Regional Education Minister's Conference (APREMC-II) in Bangkok, Thailand from 5-7 June. She also took part at the high level opening ceremony which was officiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand.
“It was an opportune time for me to meet my counterparts from Asia-Pacific Region as the two day conference is expected to allow Ministers to discuss on learning recovery and transforming education and its systems to ensure that the Asia Pacific Regional achieves it SDG4 targets”, said the Minister for Education.
She also participated and spoke at the Ministerial Roundtable discussion where she stressed that Education Transformation should not just allow students to attain degrees but to also provide opportunities for students to venture into other areas. Minister Kumar stressed the need for the ICT in learning and teaching especially after the recent pandemic.
Minister Kumar emphasised the importance of return on investment in education, something to ponder upon in particular in Fiji's case where free education grant is provided to schools. All in all, transformation in education should also provide what learners want and require and not just what we want.
Minister Akbar concluded during the Ministerial roundtable discussion that Fiji is not only committed to education through financing in the form of free education grant, but it has also implemented stringent measures to monitor finance utilisation for optimum results and will continue to strengthen to ensure the best results. She also emphasised on the importance of quality of education.
The conference continued for two days where she is made more interventions and had side meetings with relevant stakeholders on issues pertaining to education.