FORMER educationist Susana Tuisawau says university graduates who want to teach must complete essential education units, warning that subject degrees alone are not enough to address Fiji’s literacy crisis.
Ms Tuisawau said calls to move secondary teachers with degrees into primary schools to address foundational learning were misguided.
“These teachers do not have the highly specialised training required for infant teaching,” she said.
The findings of the regional 2025 Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Report said the Pacific was facing a reading crisis – but did not include the Fiji situation because the Ministry Of Education had not released the country’s results.
“That is where many administrators in our educational system in Fiji had made the mistake which has caused today’s situation.”
She said teaching the foundational basics required technical knowledge and passion for infant teaching.
“It is a very highly specialised and technical field of teaching and requires trainee teachers to undertake and master phonics, child development psychology, all the psychological theories of learning and philosophy of education.”
For those with degrees wanting to teach in secondary schools, Ms Tuisawau said education training was still essential.
“Teachers with degrees need to take up essential units in education as part of their bachelor’s degree or diploma in teacher training, e.g. in curriculum development, educational psychology and philosophy, teaching methodologies and educational research.”
Ms Tuisawau said if students continued to fail in literacy and numeracy, teacher training itself must be examined.
“If children are failing in these areas, then the quality of teacher training is at fault. It is not keeping abreast with the existing needs in the environment.”
