Schools are planned to open on the 24th of May for all Teachers and on the 25th of May for all students pertaining to the approval of Ministry of Health and Medical Services.
The Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services will ensure appropriate measures are in place for safe return of students to school.
The Term 1 holiday was brought forward to Tuesday, 20th of April after the announcement of the first COVID-19 transmission case and extended for further 2 weeks to keep children safe at home during this pandemic.
The Ministry advises all students to avoid unnecessary movement, to stay home and engage in activities within the vicinity of their homes.
Parents are encouraged to become more involved with their children and provide value education during this time by engaging with their children in educational games, discussing issues with them, providing guidance to their children and other skill-based learning activities such as cooking, baking, sewing, gardening, reading newspapers, story-telling with some home-based numeracy learning such as calculating cost of grocery shopping and many more.
The Ministry has prepared supplementary worksheets as revision materials from Term 1 for Years 1 to 7 based on Literacy and Numeracy and subject specific worksheets for Years 8 to 13, which can be accessed from the Ministry’s
www.education.gov.fj.
The worksheets are only one page per week so students are not over-burdened and to allow students free time at home and create safe learning spaces for them. These worksheets are not compulsory. Students who can access these can use them for revision. Those students who are unable to access these resources should revise using their Term 1 notes, workbooks, Exam papers from Term 1.
Over the next two weeks, starting Monday 10th of May, educational content will be broadcasted on FBC’s Radio Fiji 1 and Radio Fiji 2. The Ministry will also be airing educational videos on the Education Channel via the Walesi Platform, for both Primary and Secondary students. The daily programmes will be made available on the Ministry’s website and Facebook page.
Upper secondary school students can also view good supplementary resources on the Pacific Regional Channel by Commonwealth of Learning which covers Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology lessons. These can be viewed online or downloaded on smart phones, laptops or PCs.
The Ministry advises all teachers to start preparing lesson notes, teaching materials and make necessary preparations during this extended school break for the school reopening on the 24th of May.
Ministry has made plans for possible later dates of re-opening and is working on the required adjustments that may need to be considered should there be a need for the break to be extended even further.
For now the Ministry is focused on keeping children safe at home and engaged in some form of learning as the safety of the students is paramount to the Ministry.