Work is currently underway to send a group of Fijian teachers to Tuvalu under the Fiji Volunteer Scheme (FVS).
Public Service permanent secretary, Parmesh Chand said currently there are Fijian teachers serving in Marshall Islands, Nauru and Vanuatu.
Eleven teachers left our shores for Vanuatu four days ago to serve for a term of two years.
Mr Chand said the Fiji Volunteer Scheme was growing from strength to strength since its beginning in March, 2012.
“Marshall Islands and Nauru were the first two countries of assignment for our volunteers. There were twelve teachers in Marshall Islands and they decided to recruit six more at their own cost so there are totally 18 Fijian teachers in Marshall Islands; 12 under the FVS and six under their own funding arrangement,” Mr Chand said.
“There are six teachers in Nauru. They went last year and recently 11 teachers left for Vanuatu. Currently, we are also working on about nine teachers who will be going to Tuvalu.”
Mr Chand stressed that volunteerism is not only about retired teachers or retired personnel.
“It is also about other fields covering areas such as climate change, environment, health, sanitation and the other important areas being that of disaster management, where we have good systems and capacities.
“We would be happy to look at the deployment of expertise in that area should countries seek our help,” Mr Chand added.
With a budgetary allocation of $1million this year, it is hoped that the scheme would be broadened to cover young professionals as well as other experienced personnel.
“We are very happy that Prime Minister gave us a 2.5 fold increase in the 2014 budget from $400,000 last year to $1million this year. That will help us to broaden the scheme in terms of personnel. At the moment, only retired teachers have taken up the appointment but there is a lot more opportunities under the scheme to cover other areas as well,” Mr Chand said.
PSC will also seek assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to arrange for Fijian volunteers to serve in other regional countries.
“This scheme is for the region and for domestic deployment as well. We have as much as 20 active volunteers assigned locally in education, health, climate change and in disability area with the hosts and PSC paying for the cost on 50-50 basis. Overall, we have had more than 60 assignments locally since FVS started in early 2012,” Mr Chand said.
The FVS, administered by the Public Service Commission (PSC), is an initiative of the State to reform the management of employment creation services in Fiji.
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