Where are all the students who dropped out of primary school going - Singh

School Management Association of Fiji President, Govind Singh is asking where are all the students who dropped out of primary school going.

While speaking in Parliament last month, Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro had stated that 4,489 students over the last 5 years dropped out of primary school and did not reach secondary school.

Singh is asking Radrodro who is he asking, as he is the custodian of education, and why is the Ministry not giving the Association the right to question in their schools, to question the staff, the head teacher and the teachers.

He asks why is it that some children who have entered primary school, have gone out after 8 years of education, and are not able to read and write in form 3.

The Association President asks has some research been done on this, has the Ministry got some statistics, and is the government interested in this.

He says all these issues have been discussed, and they will be putting some resolutions to the Ministry in the coming weeks, and see where they go from there.

Singh is calling for the school management to be given the right to come into the schools, to talk to the teachers, the school heads, to address the parents too as the managers, because they are people from the community.

He says for example, if you look at the schools in the villages, the children from the village come to that school, so if the head teacher allows the manager to come in and address the teachers, at least the manager can come and tell them what is going on in the community, because he is part of that community.

The Association President says the management can then take it to the community at the grassroot level, where it can be preached from the pulpit to say look, these are the things that are happening.

He says when the management is cut out and not given the resources, they cannot deal with this.