Page 24 - IB January 2022

Education Education

CLASS DISMISSED?

Continued from page 20 ing platform powered by Microsoft Community Training, which
concerned about the transmission of COVID-19). stores locally developed video lessons and quizzes, so children
The University of Fiji’s newly-appointed vice-chancellor Pro- can access education materials regardless of the quality of
fessor Shaista Shameem agrees that the quality of education their internet connection.
has deteriorated. When schools closed last year, Leadership Fiji introduced
“The 14 years or so that students spend in the public educa- an online children’s program. Spanning three short sessions,
tion system prior to university are marked by something close it focused on various aspects of leadership, and covered
to mediocrity. It is easy to blame the teachers for this by self-awareness, leading and serving others, responsibility to
stating that their training at universities is deficient but when the environment, and teamwork. Participants also filled out
the education system and philosophy is weak at its core, it daily gratitude journals as a way of “introducing them to self-
is unfair to target the teachers with such criticism,” the VC reflection, and working with others, and helping others,” says
said. CEO Sharyne Fong.
“The [Fiji] Education Commission Report of 2000 estab- New Zealand outfit, Nanogirl Labs, has created an e-learn-
lished a modern and creative agenda for education in Fiji; it ing program for high school teachers, designed to support
needs to be dusted off and reviewed for its utility and appli- science teaching in Cook Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and
cation in our current circumstances by another Commission.” Vanuatu. It’s still early days, but the project will eventually
Meanwhile, moves to implement education reforms in deliver “100 science lessons, relevant videos and an audio
Samoa appear to have been slowed by the pandemic—Samoan glossary through a custom designed e-learning and profes-
schools were closed for a quarter of the 2020 academic year— sional development programme” on a platform that will also
and the change of government in 2021. Under the reforms, be available offline and through simple smart devices.
secondary schooling is to be shortened by one year, and stu- As our article on page 21 shows, many teachers have been
dents offered four learning pathways in the later secondary willing to go the extra mile-quite literally- to support students
years: commerce, arts, science and technical and vocational despite the challenges of the last few years. Here’s hoping
education. that in 2022, their students will again get the educational,
social and community benefits that come with being with
Innovation and adaptation their friends and teachers in physical classrooms and school
The pandemic has driven some innovation in the education playgrounds.
sector.
The Kiribati Learning Passport is an online and offline learn- editor@islandsbusiness.com

THE TWEETING TEACHER

Continued from page 21 astonishment and surprise, received a lot of response with
who was involved in an accident and was unable to walk. She individuals asking for more.
had never been married and was living alone with almost all Another interesting aspect of using Twitter is its unique
her immediate relatives overseas. That story also went viral, ability to connect people to one another. A perfect example
and I was eventually contacted by Fiji Times reporter Ana Ma- happened to me when I used to put up pictures of our school
digibulu, who then wrote the story and it was published in the farm and the Hon Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete commented on one
Fiji Times with the Fiji Sun sharing the initial tweet on their my tweets that he would one day visit Mataso Primary School.
Social Media Watch Page. Late last year he was invited to be the Chief Guest at the Ra
Just recently (two weeks ago) I had also shared on Twitter, Teachers Award Ceremony to honour all the teachers that had
Facebook and Instagram the incident in which a fire complete- assisted the Ministry of Health in terms of vaccination, profil-
ly destroyed a fellow colleague’s school quarters and a Fiji ing and verification. During the picture taking sessions I asked
Sun reporter called me for an interview. An article on the fire him if I could have a picture taken with him and he agreed. I
incident was published in the Fiji Sun two days later. This then then told him that I would put the picture up on Twitter and
raised awareness of the plight of the distraught teacher and tag him also. He then asked for my name, and he immediately
her four children which eventually led to teachers all over the recognised it. He had my details taken down and promised
country sending in $1 contribution each through M-PAiSA. The that he would visit Mataso and our son Tua. Two weeks later
teacher concerned has finally received that assistance today. he was true to his word, and he visited us in school bringing a
In addition to that, she has been receiving assistance in cash gift for our son and he also took the opportunity to speak to
and in kind from first here in the local community, here in Ra, the villagers about the importance of getting vaccinated. That
all over the country and overseas. was all possible because of Twitter.
In terms of the stories and experiences that I have shared
on the bird app, they are true stories that really happened. editor@islandsbusiness.com
The scary stories and the funny ones that I shared, to my
24 Islands Business, January 2022