A TOTAL of 360 teachers left the country for greener pastures between January 1 and May 31 in 2026.
Fiji Teachers Union general secretary Muniappa Goundar said this meant an average of two teachers left every day within the five-month period.
“The total exit from the ministry from 1st January to 31st May is 360 which means an average of 72 teachers per month for the five first months of this year,” he said.
“If we break down further into days, the same five months have 154 days meaning an average of two teachers per day.”
He said this was concerning because the ministry was already struggling to retain teachers.
“We have to seriously look into this issue because our current population of teachers are being overwhelmed.”
Mr Goundar said while the ministry addressed this issue, they acknowledged Government’s efforts to look after current teachers.
He said the Government would soon pay teachers who took on acting roles and new graduate teachers.
“A total of approximately $1.698million will be paid out maybe in the 17th pay to 98 new appointments, 164 acting appointments and 12 nonteaching appointments.
“That means a total of 318 officers will be paid later this month.”
