There should not be any shortages of teachers in schools around Fiji because there are many graduates “still floating around the country looking for jobs”.
Fiji Teachers Association general secretary Paula Manumanunitoga said this while responding to concerns raised by some parents that a few schools do not have pure science teachers.
He said that some graduates had been looking for teaching jobs for more than two years now.
“All schools in the country must be supplied with appropriate teaching for all subjects and there shouldn’t be any shortages,” Mr Manumanunitoga said.
“There are a surplus of teachers and many graduates are still floating around the country looking for jobs, even some working as supermarket cashiers at the moment.
“I met one in Nakasi who is a cashier, a graduate secondary school teacher who has been looking for a job for over two years, or maybe three years, after graduating from university with a bachelor’s degree but there was no place.
“If the issue is raised that schools do not have teachers in a discipline or in a subject area, and especially in the area of science, then it’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed by the ministry.”
He said the association had not been made aware of any such concerns this year, only in the past.
He also said that principals and heads of schools should have taken the issue up with the ministry before parents went to the media.
“The ministry, once they get information more or less a complaint in that regard, they should act immediately and address the problem because we really do not want our students to be suffering because of the appointment of teachers.
“This is where unions come in and request the ministry to appoint teachers in various disciplines.
“If the head of the school, the principal or the vice principal knows of such matters then he or she should have invested in taking it up to the ministry and the ministry should have acted immediately before the complainant is blown out of proportion, even ending up with a media.
“But we also take their (parents’) side because if that is so, if their complaint is true and factual then the ministry needs to take action appropriately.”
Education Ministry acting permanent secretary Timoci Bure said the shortages were on trained teachers.
“Trained teachers means those that have done teacher training with the subject majors,” he said.
“So now we are sending teachers with straight degrees and without teacher training.”
When asked why students were not told to refrain from taking subjects that don’t have subject teachers, Mr Bure said, “why should we tell students not to take physics when we are working on getting one?”.
The first school term for this year ends in six weeks’ time on May 5.
