Permanent Secretary for Education, Dr. Anjeela Jokhan says the fact is that certain teachers have not attained or kept up to date with necessary qualifications to teach the students and the Ministry has told them to get this in order.
In a press conference, Dr. Jokhan says a degree does not automatically qualify someone to teach unless it is a teaching degree. She says there are special qualifications required that ensures the teachers are trained to deal with different scenarios with children.
Dr. Jokhan says parents want qualified teachers.
She says one should question would a lawyer be allowed to practice law without a registration qualification or would one like a surgeon whose registration has expired to perform a surgery.
She has questioned why Fiji Teachers Union General Secretary, Agni Deo Singh and the National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad are pushing for unqualified and unregistered teachers to teach the students.
Dr. Jokhan says there is a bulk of teachers that have kept up with their qualifications and registrations and have continued to educate themselves.
She also claimed in the press conference that fijivillage, Fiji Times and Fiji Sun have not done any research on the matter while publishing stories.
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Dr. Jokhan says in 2017, a teacher proficiency test was conducted for pre service graduates, those wishing to enter the teaching profession and practicing teachers who did not have education topics as part of their qualifications.
She says approximately half of the applicants failed the English proficiency component of the test raising concerns about digital literacy.
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fijivillage and CFL’s 5 radio stations have covered several issues from the Education Minister’s visits to schools over the past few weeks. These were covered on fijivillage, Legend FM, FM96, Viti FM, Navtarang and Radio Sargam. We have also covered Doctor Jokhan’s comments from last Thursday on the issue regarding unqualified and unregistered teachers. Specific follow up questions for clarification were sent to her however she has not answered the questions in full to date.
We also tried to ask questions after Doctor Jokhan’s statement in the press conference however we were told that no questions were allowed and we have to email her. Legend FM News has sent her the follow up and further questions again.
You can check out the earlier stories on our website, fijivillage.
We have also sent questions to Fiji Teachers Union General Secretary, Agni Deo Singh and National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad after Doctor Jokhan raised the question on why they are pushing for unqualified and unregistered teachers to teach the students.
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