18 cents per meal for a student, not enough – Namataku teacher

Calls have been made to the Ministry of Education to re-look at the funding for operational grants for boarding primary schools, as the funding is not enough to cater for a student’s meal.

While speaking during the consultation on the review of the Education Act 1966 in Navosa, Namataku District School teacher Tomasi Bainivalu says he has taught in several primary schools around the country, and when he calculated the funding provided by the Ministry and how much a student receives, it came down to 18 cents per meal.

He says when looking at the cost of living nowadays, 18 cents cannot buy anything from a shop or supermarket.

Bainivalu says he believes there were fewer primary boarding schools in 1966, and the operational grants for these schools should be reviewed and aligned with the cost of living nowadays.

The teacher is also calling on the Ministry to review the curriculum at Teacher Training Institutions because teachers are being labelled as incompetent when they are sent to schools to teach.

He says the curriculum at Teacher Training Institutions keeps changing, and he asks if the changes happening are aligned with the Education Act.

Bainivalu also highlighted the need for remote and rural schools to be included when piloting a subject in schools, as this is where the challenges lie in terms of providing better education for future generations.

He says many of the subjects being piloted are only done in schools in urban centres, and he does not see any justification in that.