EDUCATION Minister Aseri Radrodro has given deregistered teachers seven days to resolve their registration issues with the Fiji Teachers Registration Authority (FTRA).
This follows the discovery that 64 teachers had been teaching without valid licences.
According to Opposition MP Premila Kumar, the FTRA deregistered teachers earlier this year after failing to renew their licences with the authority.
Mr Radrodro said the ministry’s human resources department was working to ensure affected teachers completed their registration within the given time.
“So it’s like in the middle of the school term,” he said.
“Our HR department is taking necessary steps to remind those teachers to sort out their outstanding registration issues with FTRA, and hopefully that should be finalised within seven days.”
Mr Radrodro criticised the authority for not notifying the teachers before deregistration, saying it should have taken steps to inform them before their registration period expired.
He said the deregistrations had contributed to teacher shortages, prompting the ministry to deploy supplementary teachers from various subjects to affected schools.
“Because these teachers are their members, they should have taken the necessary steps to advise them prior to the expiration of their registration period.
“So they’ve advised us, we’ve taken the necessary steps to request that they do the registration proper within seven days.”
He also confirmed that only 251 of the 973 registered teachers have received their official FTRA ID cards.
Addressing questions about retired teachers being rehired, Mr Radrodro said only those under 60 years old were engaged, mainly for STEM subjects and special or inclusive education.
He said the ministry was considering expanding this to include primary school teachers.
