PARENTS and teachers have been urged to put more emphasis on early childhood education.
Speaking at the Early Childhood Education celebration at Naidovi Primary School in Sigatoka yesterday, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said school children deserved the support of teachers and parents to do well in class.
"We need to provide assistance and we must focus on early childhood," he said.
"We need to acknowledge the teachers for raising the children as it is a very critical part.
"As a parent, it is very important to behave with them, in the same way, if the teachers are good then the children will be good.
"Teachers play a critical part, but we always neglect the teachers some time. They play an important role in controlling the children.
"They play a very wide role in determining how a child will be like when he grows up."
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the government was committed to education and children should be given the liberty to attend school.
"The Bainimarama government is very much focused on education because education is the future of our children, future of our country and also the future of our parents," he said.
"If children are well-educated and if they reach a particular level of education, they will get good jobs, if they get good jobs the country does well."
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the government also provided many forms of assistance through education to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
"I know not all children in Fiji can attend early childhood or early kindergarten, many of you have family members who have young children and they are not going to kindergarten and some are not even sending their kids to primary schools.
"Please encourage them to do so and it is not only the question of sending them to school but you must also support them if they come home, talk to them about school and give them access to books etc.
"The Bainimarama government has also given bus fare assistance and free textbooks because we don't want to see a difference between the rich and the poor.
"We want the poor to have access to resources to be educated," the Attorney-General said.