Monash Professor says universities are not aligned to the changing labour market and Govt is funding unemployment

There is an issue of a mismatch between industry expectations and programs in tertiary institutions not aligned to the changing labour market in Fiji, which is leading to unemployment.

While speaking at the recent Higher Education Forum, Monash University Business School Professor Paresh Narayan says this is the scene in Fiji and other Pacific Island countries, and Government is basically funding unemployment.

Narayan says we are funding programs at higher education institutions that are creating unemployment.

He says the problem begins at primary school level where we are lacking quality teachers who are coming from tertiary institutions.

Narayan says what is wrong is that we do not have teachers who are motivated to teach and their objective from day one was not to become teachers.

He says majority of these teachers force themselves to teach because they could not attain a bachelors degree in other fields such as accounting or science.

Narayan adds he is not talking about the top 5 percent of students and their focus is on the remaining students which is where the problem is.

He says when our children enroll in universities, they come from a system which has already weakened them.