PUT education first because it will arm villagers with the skills to manage their own development projects, says iTaukei Affairs Minister Ifereimi Vasu.
The minister told landowners in Vuda, outside Lautoka, that education and upskilling would be incorporated into every development plan moving forward.
“With every program and initiative we introduce, we will be including capacity-building and training into each of them,” Mr Vasu said.
“So that when we hand over the program to the landowners or to the village, they are able to run it themselves.”
Mr Vasu is advocating in every community he visits that people should not be sending their child to be educated who then go on to work for someone else.
“They have to be educated with knowledge that could be used to develop their resources,” he said.
“We have been given these God-given resources, what we need to do is make use of them.”
Ba Provincial Council chairman Ratu Meli Tora Tavaiqia welcomed the call by Mr Vasu.
“You may say that I am a little bit biased here because I am an educator, but I have always emphasised this and I emphasised this with the vanua (Vuda),” said Ratu Meli.
“I am also the chairman of the Sabutoyatoya Trust, which is the Tui Vuda’s yavusa, and I told the trustees I would be focusing on our human resources.
“I firmly believe we have qualified people who can prudently manage our resources.
“When that happens, poverty will be eradicated.”
