THE Minister for Education is adamant Fiji has an ideal student to teacher ratio.
Dr Mahendra Reddy said there had been talks about the student to teacher ratio not being reasonable but the fact of the matter was that it was quite ideal.
“We all want an ideal situation. We all want the student to teacher ratio to be around or close to 1:30,” Dr Reddy said.
“This is something everyone wants in an ideal situation but we need to be realistic about where we are in the transition.
“If people want to know whether we are meeting the ideal student to teacher ratio then let me tell you that we are having an ideal student-teacher ratio.”
Dr Reddy made the comments at Rishikul Primary School in Nasinu on Wednesday while opening a new classroom block.
He said in some schools the student-teacher ratio was 19:1 and in some schools it was 45:1.
“You would have noted there have been comments by members of the public about space in schools around Fiji particularly in the Lami to Nausori corridor, and there have been concerns raised about high school student numbers and the teacher ratio,” he said.
“Our high school student ratio is around 19 students to a teacher in Fiji, which is remarkable. In fact it’s below the ideal student-teacher ratio which is 27 or 30 students to one teacher.”
He said some schools in the maritime and rural areas often had three students to one teacher.
