4 school terms from next year

There will be four school terms from next year where each term will have 10 weeks.

Minister for Education, Premila Kumar says term 1 will begin on 30th January and end on 6th April, term 2 will begin on 24th April and end on 30th June, 3rd term begins on 17th July and ends on 22nd September and 4th term begins on 9th October and ends on 15th December.

She says Year 8 exams will be from the 5th to the 7th December, Year 12 exams from 28th November to 8th December and Year 13 exams from 14th November to the 24th of November.

She says the proposal has been well received by stakeholders such as the Fiji Head Teachers Association, the Fiji Principals Association, Fiji Retailers Association, parents, teachers, heads of schools, Parents Teachers Association, faith based organisations and Fijian Teachers Association.

Kumar says having a four term academic year for schools will allow teachers to have breaks following shorter school terms given that teachers work hard during the term and manage students which is challenging and physically draining.

Kumar further says this will also address the disruptions due to adverse weather conditions as schools are also used as evacuation centres.

The Minister says the term holidays have been also aligned with Australia and New Zealand school terms, which will allow better planning of family holidays.

She adds the new model school will further allow spread of sporting activities over three terms so term 4 can be devoted to exams.

She says this will also benefit businesses, and the Suva Retailers Association did approach Ministry of Education with their proposal where they suggested that they move away from 3 term to school year to 4 terms.

Kumar says this will allow them to conclude the business for the festive season before the start of back to school preparations and also give parents ample time to plan for the children's schooling needs after the festive season.

Lelean Memorial School Principal and Principals Association Executive, Mohammed Feroz says this will also give boarding school students 2 weeks to spend with their parents and come back refreshed for the new term.

He adds they have been part of the consultation and are happy with this decision.