Ministries have the ability to seek individual term extensions for those people who are retiring – Acting PM

Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the respective ministries have been informed that where there is technical skill sets required and there is no one to fill that position, they have the ability to seek individual term extensions for those people who are retiring.

Sayed-Khaiyum made this comment at the Catholic Head Teachers, Principals and Managers Conference after Marist Principal Ben Salacakau highlighted that there is a great shortage of technical and maths teachers throughout Fiji and the 55 years retirement policy is inflexible particularly for areas where there is a great shortage of teachers.

Salacakau says they did not have any technical teacher from the beginning of this year and just got a teacher two days ago who has just completed his diploma.

He says while they are getting the young teachers who have no training or prior experience, there are people who are retired who could very well fill these positions.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says it depends on the individual ministries to make that request.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they have extended the terms for doctors and nurses and if teachers have that technical skill sets that is not available within the system then the Ministry of Education can make that request to fill in those gaps.

The Acting Prime Minister says there is no blanket approval because it is a balancing act as the unemployment rate amongst the youth is very high.

An ex principal of Saint Joseph’s Secondary and a former teacher of Marist also raised the issue that there is a lot of paper work and no opportunity to focus on the principles and values of life such as compassion, social justice and dignity.

It was highlighted that due to a lot of paper work, proper teaching is not being done as teachers are tired of dealing with a lot of files.

The request was made to the Acting Prime Minister if the system can be reviewed.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the Education Ministry is best to answer that question as he is not very familiar with the details and he will take the issue to the Education Minister.

Meanwhile Sayed-Khaiyum thinks that sometimes there is a major shift from the responsibilities from the parents to the teachers and there is a need to work with the community.