Multiple modes of education delivery

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Premila Kumar speaking in parliament on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. Picture: PARLIAMENT OF FIJI

Learning and teaching must be transformed to allow multiple modes of education delivery, Minister for Education Premila Kumar said this as she urged school principals to “prepare for long-term, with sustainable solutions”.

“These changes are not just temporary,” she said while addressing the Fiji Principals Association virtual conference on Thursday last week . “We don’t know how long COVID-19 will be in our communities. It’s already 18 months or so.”

“We don’t know how long the natural immunity or vaccinated immunity lasts. It is too early for the scientific community to give us these answers.”

She said global education had changed from face to face to some forms of remote learning with the help of ICT tools.

“This is no longer a luxury but a necessity.”

“The ministry will invest in a lot of efforts to include ICT tools in learning. This means using our learning management system (LMS) Moodle in education delivery.” She said teachers would be trained on how to use the LMS.

“We need to revise our curriculum to make it leaner and prepare it for online and blended modes of learning. “Online learning needs to complement classroom teaching. And when schools are forced to close, (as it is now) students will have the option to continue learning from home.

This is going to perhaps be the most significant change in education delivery in our history. And we must make this transformation. “

Mrs Kumar said the changes would empower students to become more independent learners, “giving them a much better skill set for lifelong learning”.