I would like to respond to Arun Prasad’s letter on parental concerns (FT 10/06/17). Mr Prasad claims that his concerns with respect to the Healthy Living textbooks have not been addressed by the Ministry of Education. It is obvious that he has not been following changes well enough in this regard.
He should note that when the issue of Healthy Living textbooks contents were raised with the ministry by some stakeholders in 2015, the textbooks were revised to remove the contents deemed sensitive. The revised books were printed in December 2015, and since January 2016, these revised books have been distributed to all the primary schools to replace the old texts.
Schools were advised to shelve the old textbooks and teachers have been told to use these new texts. In addition, the revised texts were uploaded on the ministry website (www.education.gov.fj) and soft copies were circulated via CDs to all the schools. The revised text at Year 8 level briefly mentions changes that will happen to every boy and girl reaching puberty under the Growth and Changes strand and Physical Change sub-strand.
It intends to educate children in understanding and appreciating the physical changes that their bodies will undergo at that stage. Most importantly, the trained teacher is guided by the respective syllabus for the teaching of these concepts to children. He or she will determine the depth of information imparted to a child at that level. I hope that this has clarified Mr Prasad’s concerns on this subject.
