STUDENTS GET FREE ACCESS TO EDUCATION CHANNEL DURING COVID-19

22/04/2020

The Fijian Government has moved quickly to soften the negative impact on the education of Fijian children from staying home due to COVID-19.
 
Fijian Attorney-General and Minister for Communications Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Minister for Education Rosy Akbar held negotiations with the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) and Walesi to implement a new educational channel.
 
Fijian students from Kindergarten to Year 13 will now be able to access educational programs through a new free-to-air Education Channel on Walesi.
"The Fijian Government's goal of keeping Fiji up-to-date with global technological advances has ensured that we have the infrastructure and technological capacity to deploy this program and keep our children educated during COVID-19 when schools are closed for the safety of our children," said Minister Sayed-Khaiyum.
 
The 2 organisations (FBC and Walesi) will work closely with Government to support the curriculum outcomes for Fijian students, providing the opportunity to continue learning in a bid to counter COVID-19.
 
Fijian Education Minister Akbar urged students to take advantage of this opportunity provided by the Government and learn as much as they can during this time.
 
“Fijian students will have access to a wide range of relevant curriculum-based educational programmes in literacy, numeracy and all other subjects from kindergarten to Year 13,” said Minister Akbar.
 
This initiative is for the benefit of our young ones and I urge parents to encourage their children to view the free-to-air channel and, when possible, get actively involved in the process,” said Minister Akbar.
 
Students will be able to access the channel at any time through Walesi and the Fijian Government urges parents to also be involved and keep our future leaders educated.
 
To further ensure that our students are engaged in their studies during this period, the Ministry of Education has also prepared supplementary resource materials that will be accessible online.
 
This syllabus has been carefully prepared by the Curriculum Advisory Services Department of the Ministry of Education with the current circumstances in mind and covers all critical information to keep Fijians students up to date from the comfort of their own homes.
 
The Ministry of Education is also providing parents with educational materials, which will be available at schools from 4 May 2020, if they are unable to access online materials.
 
Parents are again reminded that these resources are supplementary and designed to keep our children engaged in their studies while safe at home. Students will not be tested on the syllabus.
 
The Walesi App has over 400,000 registered users while there are over 130,000 registered set-top box users.
 
You can also download Walesi on the Google Playstore or the Apple App Store or go to any Walesi outlet to get a set top box.