On October 15, 1983, The Fiji Times published an article following a statement by the then commissioner western Poseci Bune that the style of education in Fiji was blocking development.
According to the article, Mr Bune spoke at a youth seminar at Lautoka Teachers College attended by 26 members of the National Assembly of District Youth Councils.
Mr Poseci was quoted as saying the education curriculum or system had what he described as “a vested interest in the maintenance of the status quo”, but lacked the encouragement of development.
“Such an educational approach can be immensely harmful in creating attitudes which are basically anti-development,”Mr Bune said.
He said if the education system acted as an instrument of the development policy, it must then be revised or purged of its current goal of keeping jobs and employment in the urban areas and implementing rural development.
“There is an urgent need for a schooling system which is a useful introduction rather than a perpetual deterrent to rural life,” he said.
Mr Bune also stressed the need to change traditional methods of teaching.
To further improve the quality of life in the rural areas, Mr Bune said there should also be part-time educational sessions which included practical work on model farms, attention given to nutrition and hygiene, basic introduction of crop management and many other aspects of rural science.
The Fiji Times also quoted as saying: “Only with radical reform can education fulfill its potentially significant role in mobilising human resources.”
Mr Bune said there was a need for more efforts to teach skills for youths because there was not enough being done at the time.
