school fess

Schools are no where without students don't you think? Without students there wouldn't be teachers and without teachers there wouldn't be school administrators.

So why are they sending students home if their fees have not been fully paid? Haven't they considered Fiji's economic problems or the pay cut of certain parents? or more importantly some students might have parents who are no longer employed due to the retirement age policy.

Well, is it not sad to see students being told not to sit for their exams just because their school fees were not paid? I had a cousin who came home all upset because her mum had not paid half of her fees. When her mum had called the school the principal said that she had to pay the full amount to sit for her exam. Being a retired nurse just at the age of 56 she had to get some loan to pay her daughters fees.

The Minister of Education Filipe Bole has warned schools not to send students home when they have not paid their fees. He has asked school administrators to be realistic with their demands from parents.

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Investing into Education

I was reading an online article on the Fiji Times about a 75th annual meeting of the Fijian Teachers Association at the Suva Civic Auditorium where the chief guest Mr. McCullock gave a speech.

What striked me was what he said. He said that 20% of Fiji's national budget actually goes to education and out of that only 16% goes to tertiary education and that there was a need to invest into higher education in order to improve skilled workers to give back to the economy. He said that our Pacific Islands has become poorer than 10 years ago due to the rates of students in secondary schools being low and getting into tertiary level becomes lower. And brain drain has increased as there has been lack of financial investment into education. He said Fiji had good tertiary institutions but the standards of institutions needed to increase.

Is the rate of education in tertiary institutions becoming lower due to lack of investments or is it because students just don't take education seriously?

Fishing Ban

Have you heard about the fishing ban in Momi Village? well it just reminds me of the Qoliqoli bill. The Qoliqoli Bill 2006 is said to be a significant piece of legislation for Fiji, "particularly the Fijian community", according to the Fiji government website.The Bill proposes transfer proprietary rights of qoliqoli areas (beach, lagoon and reef ) from the State of Fiji to the qoliqoli owners, who are ethnic Fijians. Others such as hotel owners will be required to make payments to the ethnic Fijians holding the rights.But the Bill became unconstitutional.

Reading todays paper it stated that a villager has placed a fishing ban on its waters and have also placed fish wardens on the coastlines to stop illegal fishing in the area. The villages of Momi and Nabila have put up the ban and they will be guarding their fishing grounds. They have said that people who were not from that area must fish in the outter sea. They were trying to say that outsiders have disturbed the sea bed, damaged the reef and coral due to diving and overfishing. The outsiders even sell the fish in the markets and on the road side. They are ready to seize the outsiders fishing gears if they were found in their area and ask the Fishing Department to suspend or take away their licence.

O.k we do need to preserve our resources and protect our beatiful sandy beaches with its marine organisms; but a ban? Evryone has a right to the natural resources around us,Didin't God create it for man kind to use. Have you been other villagers and seen them banning fishermans...what if fishing is their only source of income...why can't people face abit of competiton? Down in Tailevu at my grandads farm which is near the sea, I have seen Fijian women actually killing little fishes. How? well they use this plant in Fijian its called duva. They kinda pound near the reefs or just on the shore and the fishes just start floating,,,sad ain't it?.

Well whatever I just hope the ban is for the good of man kind and not some kind of whose going to earn more..

attitude

IS IT ME OR IS IT EVERYONE? where is our culture? O.k so what our lifestyle has changed, from clothing to our eating habits, from changing our religion to integration but does our attitude have to change. I did not watch the coke lite games last week but heard a lot of outside comments. The pom pom girls of Suva grammar had a lot to show on that day, with parents and other officials watching, their actions were told to be offensive. but its not only them its everywhere. Well I would not blame them as they may have been trying to get attention and create a humorous environment. Anyways we must remember that our attitude resembles who we really are.