EDUCATION is a crucial component of a nation's economic and social development, says Australia's acting High Commissioner Glenn Miles.
He made the comments during the official hand-over ceremony at the Sigatoka Methodist Primary School, marking the completion of renovation works on 24 classrooms, a staff room, the headteacher's office, library, a computer room and a toilet block.
"The funding for education ranks as a major impact-development investment and not only benefits individual students and their families but society as a whole," Mr Miles said.
"The assistance provided also included replacing the roofing structure and roofing iron of three classrooms and installing proper drainage to help the school be more resilient to future heavy rains.
"Renovation work, costing close to $160,000 followed damage caused by floods in April this year and was undertaken through the AusAID-funded Access to Quality Education Program (AQEP)."
Mr Miles hoped the renovations would help motivate the 850 school students. AQEP commenced in August last year and represents an injection into Fiji's education sector of up to $A50million (approximately $F91.7m) from 2011 to 2016.