More than 20 participants from neighbouring Pacific Island countries have gathered at Pacific Harbour to strengthen regional partnerships for education development through the Education for International Understanding (EIU) program and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The participants, who are trained teacher educators and professionals in the field of teacher education and curriculum development from UNESCO Members States of the Pacific, are taking part in a four-day workshop from today.
The training workshop on the EIU and MDGs for Educators in the Pacific Island Countries was opened by the Minister for Education, Mr Filipe Bole last night.
Mr Bole, while highlighting the theme of the workshop ‘Caring in the Pacific’, said that it is for teacher educators to develop their competency to teach education for international understanding and MDGs.
He said that a global partnership for development should be developed in order to achieve the eight MDGs by 2015.
Mr Bole added that the Fijian government and in particular the Ministry of Education have provided various forms of assistance to make education more accessible to children across the country.
“We’ve tried to make education accessible to all school-aged children in Fiji through the provision of transport assistance, free text books, fee-free grants, food vouchers for remote primary schools, school zoning, establishment of infant schools and having a fail-free education system which are just some of the initiatives we have undertaken,” Mr Bole said.
“Indeed education is the best vehicle that can be used in addressing many social, cultural, economic and environmental issues in today’s globalised world”.
Mr Bole is hopeful that the workshop will assist educators in training the teachers to be pro-active and to be able to address the difficulties students face.
The EIU and MDGs training workshop is co-organised by the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), Fiji Ministry of Education and Fiji National Commission for UNESCO.
APCEIU is a UNESCO Category II centre, working for 47 Member States in Asia and the Pacific region to promote Education for International Understanding towards a Culture of Peace.
The Centre was established in 2000 according to the agreement between the Government of the Republic of Korea and UNESCO.
The training workshop is attended by participants from Fiji, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
EIU and MDGs workshop will come to an end this Friday July, 20th 2012.
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