Education is an important tool in establishing the foundation of a nation as well as shaping its leaders of tomorrow. COVID-19 impacted millions of students across the globe forcing nations to find alternative ways of education deliverance, including Fiji’s Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) for its 200,000+ students.
Fiji’s educational landscape has always had its issues pre- COVID such as schools running out of toner and paper leaving students without worksheets or means to do assessments.
The pandemic, however, presented a different type of challenge in which schools were locked down and alternative methods of teaching had to be undertaken whether it be online or sending worksheets through Viber or WhatsApp.
This period of lockdown and makeshift learning exposed the significant inequality in education deliverance between schools within urban areas to those in regional and remote areas.
There have been positive steps taken since then by our education stakeholders with initiatives such as Learning Hub, though, the lack of consistency in our education deliverance across the country should be of a national concern.
For example, a student in Suva compared with a student in Tailevu, although both working to the same national curriculum and will sit the same final exams, the likelihood of the educational content they will receive throughout their time at school will be vastly different.
Fiji’s Constitution outlines that “every person has the right to early childhood, primary and secondary education”, but the reality is that not every student has the access to “quality” education and as the world shifts to a digitalised “new normal” and the concept of traditional education radically changes Fiji needs be open to embrace new and emerging technologies in the education sector.
To address these issues AKDA Global Education, a Sydneybased education company has partnered with Education Perfect (EP), a New Zealand-based online teaching and learning platform.
EP is a proven platform used in over 80 countries, in 3000+ schools, by over 50,000 teachers and by 1.2+ million students and my role is to introduce this cutting-edge education technology to the primary and secondary schools of Fiji as well as the wider South Pacific region.
Fiji views New Zealand as a benchmark in many aspects of governance and when it comes to education EP is used by 95 per cent of New Zealand’s primary and secondary schools (public, private and international) as well as right across Australia’s education landscape.
The EP platform is the most comprehensive online learning and teaching platform and what separates it from other learning platforms is:
• Ability to align with Fiji’s education curriculum.
• Core subject focus: English, maths, science and languages including 10,000+ learning videos and 35,000+ customisable lessons.
• Artificial intelligence within the platform providing a personalised learning pathway for students and enables teachers to teach with data-backed information.
• Flexible in application whether it’s utilised as a digitalised lesson, set homework, conduct assessments or simply as an extra resource in the classroom. It’s not to replace teaching, but to enhance and empower teachers and students where needed.
As I mentioned earlier, Fiji needs to embrace new and emerging technologies and currently we are on the edge of an educational revolution that can provide an opportunity for our students to receive education at the level and standards of Australia and New Zealand – this an opportunity that cannot be missed.
Ultimately, our objective is to provide the students of Fiji an online learning platform that personalises their learning experience, empower teachers through technology and lastly, implement a platform that delivers education consistently nationwide and bridge the inequalities our regional and remote schools are currently facing.
If you are a principal, teacher or educational stakeholder and would like to learn more about the Education Perfect platform or introduce it to your school, please email – arron@akdaglobal.com.au.
• ARRON JEET SINGH is the head of South Pacific Business Development at AKDA Global Education. His primary role is to introduce an e-learning platform across the South Pacific region and work with educational stakeholders to implement it at a national level. The views expressed in this article are his and not necessarily shared by this newspaper.
