IT was back to school yesterday for thousands of students around the country.
For some, school starts today.
As we send them off for the first term of school, perhaps we should reflect on the year that was and work towards making this new term a positive one.
There were many last minute issues to attend to at the weekend.
This first term is about ensuring our children are prepared for classes and another journey of discovery in 2019.
The State has placed a heavy focus on education over recent years.
We keep going back to 2014 to get a bearing on the State’s focus on education.
That was when $370 million was set aside for the Education Ministry, an increase of $101.54 million from 2013.
There was a concerted effort to expand into new policy initiatives.
As the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, pointed out when he announced the 2014 budget in November, 2013, “2014 will go down as the year we embarked on an education revolution to better equip all our young people for their future and build a Fiji that is not just smarter, but which provides every young person with increased opportunities.
“It will be a nation in which no young person seeking knowledge, skills and training is left behind because of economic disadvantage, a nation in which poverty is no barrier to learning.”
All Fijians, he said, “will be encouraged and provided the incentive to embrace learning as a means to improve their own lives and the wellbeing of the nation.
Every Fijian will be given the opportunity to pursue excellence, to reach for the stars”.
Surely we know that education is important for the development of our nation.
Once you consider that, it makes sense then that special attention is placed on it.
We should work towards instilling in our children a desire to learn.
We should teach them to value education.
We should be lapping up the State’s initiative and embracing the opportunity to be educated.
We should make things happen for our children.
We should embrace the need to learn and be educated.
We need to set the platform for our children to be motivated to do well this year.
Thousands of students would have embraced the opportunity to be back in class.
Surely some first-timers would have had issues with the thought of separation from their parents.
Some would have been in unfamiliar territory.
There would have been uncertainty and anxiety.
In the end though, it’s all part of a new school year.
We wish every student heading to school this morning, and parents and guardians, all the best in 2019.
