Calls for more counsellors in schools to address student disciplinary issues have been raised during the National Conversation on Corporal Punishment.
Influence Global Network representative Abhay Chand says counsellors should be compulsory in all schools to provide guidance rather than resorting to disciplinary action.
He says the Ministry should provide counsellors who understand how to address behavioural issues in children instead of using corporal punishment.
Head of Planning, Policy and Research at the Ministry of Education, Metuisela Gauna says they are currently engaging Talatalas in schools to assist the Ministry in this area.
He says the key priority of the Ministry is the reintroduction of counsellors in schools.
Gauna says some of the teachers have gone through counselling training and they will slowly be engaging them into schools.
He adds they are bringing back something that was removed from schools in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Fijian Teachers Association is pushing for the reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools as a disciplinary measure.
Association General Secretary Paula Manumanunitoga had said that he represents a group that had raised issues happening in the classroom during their Annual General Meeting where teachers are being sworn at, objects thrown at them, while female teachers are being abused.
He says the lives of teachers are being threatened as these issues were only seen in secondary schools before but now, it is also happening in primary school.
Manumanunitoga adds that parents are not playing their roles to discipline their children.
He further adds that when parents neglect their responsibilities, children start to involve themselves in disrespectful behaviour.
The General Secretary says what they are pushing for is that leather belts be used by the Heads of Schools for only disciplinary purposes and not anger.
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