Ministry of Education

The SNAP programme was conducted over 3 days with a variety of activities which commenced from Tuesday to yesterday.

The programme aims to educate children about the effects of Smoking, Nutrition, Alcohol and Physical – SNAP.

A statement said “The First day of the SNAP programme saw a good number of children in attendance to join the programme with its first activity on Hygiene. Young children were educated about the importance of Hygiene.”

 Minister of Education, Premila Kumar said there is no need to test the knowledge of students as they are too young and there needs to be space to allow the students to learn and grow.

The Minister also said they will review all subjects for these students with a view to remove some.

“And focus only on numeracy, literacy, civic and moral education. We want to focus on things like gardening, sports, vernacular, that’s all want to focus so that we are able to teach other things through civic and moral education.”

The donation was made by the country’s major development partners in Australia.

Deputy Australian High Commissioner, Andrew Hodges presented rugby balls, AFL footballs, basketballs, ten pin bowling set and mats.

Secretary for Sport, Dagan Kaeirua thanked Australia for funding the sports equipment that will be used as part of their community sport programme.

Hodges thanked the sports department for their assistance.

He said he looks forward to seeing the students using the sports equipment to live a healthy life style by being active.

Children aged 5 to 12 have been at home since April last year while Year 12 and 13 students returned to classes in November.

Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said the coronavirus is now endemic to Fiji and community transmission will lead to the same in schools.

This comes after the government announced two more cases of Covid-19 in the community, two children - one a student - from a settlement in the capital Suva.

Education Minister Rosy Akbar said it is unfortunate that the details of the student were released and are now circulating on social media.

Ms Akbar said the ministry strives to protect the interest of all the children and she reminded the public to be mindful of the sensitivity surrounding this issue.

She urged people to refrain from sharing such confidential information.

The Education Minister, Joseph Yopyyopy said the teachers were required to begin preparing for classes.

He said the four weeks lost from term one, when the country first took measures to combat Covid-19, would be retrieved by adding an extra period to classes.

Schools should have recovered the lost time by term three, the minister added.

Meanwhile universities and other tertiary institutions are expected to resume their teaching today.

Dr Mahendra Reddy warned that teachers would be demoted to clerks within the ministry if they became a liability to the school system.

There are more than 8000 teachers around the country.

In an interview, Dr Reddy said the underperforming teachers had Monday sick leaves, affairs with students, did not cover classes and were behind schedule.

He gave an example of how some schools were way ahead in terms of the curriculum coverage.