Government to engage NGO's to provide counselling services for students in Central and Western divisions

The Fijian government with the assistance of the Australian government will engage the services of non-governmental organisations to provide counseling services to help students in selected schools in the Central and the Western divisions. 

Permanent Secretary for Education, Alison Burchell says they will engage counseling services of Empower Pacific and Medical Services Pacific to cater for the shortage of counselors in schools.

She says the National Substance Abuse Advisory Council also has 32 mentors in selected schools who conduct one on one mentoring services for students in schools who have been identified by the teachers.

She added scholarships are available for people to undertake counseling studies but the uptake has not been significant.

The Education Ministry is also involved in the process of turning 36 teachers into qualified counselors.

She says these teachers are in the second year of their training at the Australia Pacific Training Coalition and this will certify them to Australian standards of counseling.

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