TWO-hundred-and-forty-five new vacant teaching positions in primary and secondary schools have been filled. This was revealed by Acting Prime Minister and Education Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in Parliament yesterday.
While responding to an oral question by Opposition member of Parliament Mikaele Leawere on the progress of the new teacher recruitment, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said out of the 200 new positions for primary schoolteachers, 189 had been filled with teachers posted to different parts of the country.
The other 11 teachers were posted to special schools including Savusavu Special School, Fiji School for the Blind, Suva Special School, South Taveuni Primary School, Sunshine Special School, Hilton Early Intervention Centre and others.
But out of the 50 secondary school vacant teaching positions, 45 have been filled while five remain vacant.
“The other five have not been filled because they are looking specifically for teachers in specified areas, in particular in the areas of maths, physics, computer, chemistry, biology and home economics and we hope to have them filled soon,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
He said the important issue was to increase the teacher to student ratio. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said some Fijian schools had ratios that were not up to par with the required number.
“At the same time, it’s not about getting more teachers because when you get more teachers, you also need to have more classrooms; it’s the infrastructure behind that,” he said.
“It’s a holistic approach to be able to address the issue. We can’t simply bring in the teachers without the classrooms. The issue here is about constantly improving that ratio to be able to provide more teacher-student contact and also a one-on-one type of scenario where they can get more direct attention,” he added.
