The Secrets Of Fiji’s Education System
posted in Uncategorized |Indubitably, Fiji’s education system is a complex scheme controlled by guidance and administration of various religious organizations. Fijians consider that their educational system is a mixture of cultures, races and various denominations.
Fiji’s educational system consists of six-year free primary schooling and seven-year secondary education. Private religious schools are a source of racial division, where the first four years of studding are taught in different languages (i.e., Fijian, Hindi, Chinese, Rotuman or English). English is instructed at higher forms, it is the compulsory subject of study.
After the finishing of the secondary education, students may pursue their first degree program. They have to study three years to get a bachelor’s degree of arts and sciences and four years to get a bachelor’s degree of law or arts and sciences with a Graduate Certificate of Education. There are more technical institutes and teacher training colleges in Fiji and just a few universities.
Schooling is not obligatory in Fiji and yet in 1995 nearly 30 percent of Fiji’s children were attending school full-time, and about 96 percent of the kids under the age of 7 were attending school.
Fiji’s education system is unique by its direct independence of religious organizations. Just 668 primary and 139 secondary schools in the country, are ruled by the Ministry of Education and the rest are controlled by loads of religious and cultural authorities.
Primary school students don’t pay any tuition fees. The Government pays $30 for a child and it contributes to non-government secondary schools by means of salary grants, provision and equipment. During 1994, the total contribution to education was 17.5 percent of Fiji’s estimated national budget of $832,100,300. $35 million has been allocated to the University of the South Pacific; $8 million came to the Fiji Institute of Technology; and $4.9 million to the Fiji School of Medicine.
Practically all the schools in Fiji can be attended by students of all races and both sexes. The racial mix depends on the school location and the community close to it.
Peculiar features of the Fiji’s system education:
- Fiji schools are attended by nearly 220,000 students.
- Non-government schools come to 98 per cent.
- Schools are managed by community religious authorities.
- There are many tiny and far apart schools.
- Every school should follow the prescriptive curriculum.
- The average Fijian teacher wage amounts $10,000 per year.
- Teachers with a small experience work in rural schools.






