245 new teacher positions have been filled - Education Ministry

The Minister for Education has confirmed that 245 new teacher positions have been filled.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says 189 primary school teachers have been posted to schools in different parts of the country, 11 of them have been posted to special schools, which are the Nasavusavu Special School, Fiji School for the Blind, Suva Special School, South Taveuni Primary School, Norah Fraser Special School, Sunshine Special School, Hilton Early Intervention Centre and Ba School for Special Education.                     

He says out of the 50 new secondary school teacher positions, 45 positions have been filled and 5 have not been filled because the positions are specifically for teachers in specified areas such as Maths, Physics, Computer Studies, Biology, Chemistry and Economics which will be filled out soon.

NFP MP Prem Singh asked what the salary scale of the new teachers in this cadre is and if it was commensurate with qualification or experience under the Civil Service Reform.

Sayed-Khaiyum says that there is a special criteria for different positions within the teacher cadre and he will reveal the salary scales later.

SODELPA MP Salote Radrodro asked if the 200 new recruits will fill the demand by the schools or if there are still schools that don’t have enough teachers.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the teacher student ratio needs to be worked on.

He says its not just about increasing the number of teachers because when there are more teachers, there will be a need for more classrooms. He says the infrastructure will need to be changed, teachers quarters will need to be built and it’s a holistic approach.

SODELPA MP, Niko Nawaikula then said that teachers are waiting for jobs.

Sayed-Khaiyum says that Nawaikula needs to do better than that, and if he had specific examples, and they would address it. He says he cannot rely on information Nawaikula presents to parliament.