The Ministry of Education will enforce a policy for all students to complete 12 years of education before diversifying into other pathways. This is in line with its strategies to ensure that students do not drop out of school and that their education is uninterrupted until they reach Form 6. Through this policy, all students are expected to remain in school, and their first exit point to a new pathway, will be after they have completed Form 6.
The Ministry is targeting to have more than 70% of students reach tertiary and higher education levels. Vocational education will now take on a new connotation whereby it will be geared towards employment or a vocation, with the term “vocation”, meaning, a career in life.
The Ministry is working conscientiously to remove the stigma that vocational education is only for students, who are academically weak. Indeed, the lines between vocational and tertiary-bound study have now become more blurred because of the increasingly technical nature of the global economy, with many educators concluding that students need the same knowledge and skills whether they are entering the employment market or university, after their graduation from high school.
In many countries, the stigma attached to vocational education is disappearing. Fiji has every reason to follow the same path.
This new mode of thinking is that all students will now have equal opportunities in life and start off from a level playing field in terms of searching for a vocation. The current systems where students are diverted at the end of Form 4 to vocational schools will be replaced by the new system requiring all students to remain in school until they complete Form 6.
This is also one of the main reasons why the Ministry is phasing out all examinations up to Form 6 level. With the new structure, examinations will no longer be a reason for students to drop out of school. Similarly parent will not be burdened with education expenses, as Government is now paying tuition fees for every child from Class 1 to Form 7.
For too long examinations and finance have remained barriers for progressive education, and the system was such, that in many situations, students did not drop out, they were pushed out by the system.
For every child in Fiji, the pathway towards higher education, is more clearer now, with lesser hurdles along the way.
Globalization is moving at a very fast pace, and if developing countries like Fiji wish to be on par with the rest of the world, then we will urgently need an educated citizenry.
Filipe Bole
Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment