THE president of the Fijian Teachers Association (FTA), Netani Druavesi, has challenged Government to release school leadership statistics.
Mr Druavesi, in his opening address during the 85th Annual Delegates Conference in Suva yesterday, claimed the outcome of the reforms showed that about 60 per cent of iTaukei teacher leaders had been displaced from leadership positions.
“iTaukei are over 50 per cent of Fiji’s population and previously proportionately had leadership posts in more than 50 per cent of leadership positions,” Mr Druavesi claimed.
“It is vividly clear from the outcome that there is an anti-iTaukei ethnic cleansing program in place,” he claimed.
“We challenge Government and the Ministry of Education to release the statistics to prove us wrong.”
Mr Druavesi said reforms were either based on the results of continuous assessment over the years in a system that needed to be rectified to lift services and production to another level for a targeted win as much as possible situation for all stakeholders or if it was a political will for those in power with goals they hoped to achieve, which would be evident in the outcome.
Education, Heritage and Arts Minister Rosy Akbar acknowledged the comments that were echoed by Mr Druavesi.
“Mr president, I heard you loud and clear and I think that was the rationale behind why I am here,” Ms Akbar said.
“I could have taken a run and not accept the invitation, but I believe in dialogue and I believe in conversation.”
Ms Akbar said she was keen to work closely with the teacher unions to help address the issues faced by teachers. Ms Akbar refused to comment when she was approached for her to comment on the issue raised by Mr Druavesi.
