Education Minister Aseri Radrodro says the advised cost of the Fiji National Education Summit is now set at $266,576 from the initial $250,000.
He highlighted this while delivering his ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday.
“The Ministry of Education is grateful that funding provided by Global Pacific Education (GPE) can be utilised to fund the pre-summit activities as well as the summit itself,” he said.
“We acknowledge the support of UNICEF, who are grant agents for GPE funding in Fiji, in facilitating the release of funds to fund the National Education Summit. A wide range of stakeholders have been meeting since May 2023 to put together seven thematic areas as the focus area for a new Fiji education policy framework.
“They include number one, curriculum and sustainable development in quality assurance and assessment, two, teaching profession and leadership, three, early childhood education, inclusive education access equitable, safe and healthy schools, four, financing of education and effective governance, five, technical vocational education and training non formal and lifelong learning, six, digital learning and transformation technology integration and cyber safety and seven, education policy planning research and data.”
He said pre-summit consultations have been held in the four divisions – Levuka, Labasa, Suva and Nadi.
“In all the consultations, a virtual platform was also established where those in remote areas were able to link in and be part of the consultations. Similarly, members of the public who wish to make presentations in person were also catered for by the consultation.”
Mr Radrodro said the Ministry of Education had worked hard to be as inclusive as it could be in the pre-summit consultations to facilitate public consultation.
“The responses from the public were indeed overwhelming and encouraging as we look into a future where people are showing us that they want to be partners in transforming education in Fiji.
“The summit program is structured to allow for this wide cross section of stakeholders to participate and become part of the panel discussion in discussions and speakers at plenary session.”
The National Education Summit will run for three days, from September 20 to 22, with approximately 150 participants expected to participate in the summit.
This includes educational donor partners, government and nongovernment agencies, statutory and private organisations.
