His Excellency the President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau today reiterated the call for all Fijians to take advantage of Government’s Tertiary Education Loan Scheme (TELS) and other programmes to enhance their education in the various fields.
He made the comments while addressing a graduation ceremony at the University of Fiji (UniFiji) graduation ceremony in Saweni, Lautoka today.
The Head of State said Government had a vision of building a knowledge-based society and thus had provided various programmes to achieve this.
“Fiji’s national vision is to be a knowledge-based society and the Fijian government continues to place increased emphasis on the education sector. It had increased the budgetary allocation for education and had introduced several schemes to enable as many students as possible to obtain tertiary qualifications,” he said.
“But the national focus is not only in increasing the opportunities for our young people to obtain tertiary qualifications and on improving the quality of academic performance, but it is also on improving trade-based and agricultural skills.”
These, he says are now materialising in the form of technical institutions which Government has started to open in strategic locations around the country.
“Many more will be opened in the future to provide all Fijians the opportunity to gain appropriate knowledge and skills and to all of you parents who are here today, I implore you to continue to invest in the education of your children. There will be great returns from your investment,” HE Ratu Epeli said.