The Governments of Fiji and Australia are working in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Access to Quality Education Program (AQEP).
This partnership is committing all parties to the education of all Fijian children through a number of initiatives, such as the free education grant and bus fares by the Ministry of Education. AQEP is working with 85 schools and their communities across Fiji to improve access to a school education by the most disadvantaged students and to improve the quality of education.
This has resulted in many success stories in the education of our children. However, many students continue to be absent from school regularly. Regular school attendance is an essential requirement for success in school. Time is the most valuable resource a school has and students cannot learn if they are not in school. Through the Access to Quality Education Program (AQEP) the Australian Government is providing $170,000 for a new campaign to target attendance.
“Vuli Roz” is a coined phrase meaning ‘Vuli,' the Fijian word for school and ‘Roz', the Hindi word for every day thus ‘Come to School Every School Day.'
This will be a nationwide advertising campaign and competition between selected schools in each division to improve attendance. This will occur by mobilising all stakeholders to fulfil their responsibility:
· Students to attend school on time every day.
· Parents to ensure children go to bed on time, get up early enough to arrive at school on time, have breakfast, a clean school uniform and provision for lunch.
· Teachers to make lessons fun and engaging to encourage children to come to school.
· The community overall to make education a priority, and ensure all the children in the family and community are attending school.
The Minister for Education Filipe Bole said, “we challenge every student, parent, school and community to reduce absenteeism and ensure that no child is absent for over five school days per term”.
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