Working Group Takes On Challenge Of Education, Housing And Health

Working Group 8 (WG8) of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF) began talks today on Education, Housing and Health at the Parliamentary Complex in Nasese.

This Working Group is categorized under National Task Team 3 (NTT3), which looks into the issues of Social, Cultural Identity and Nation Building.
At its first meeting today, the group elected Mr. Alipate Naiorosui, Chief Executive Officer of the Housing Authority as its Chairman and Mr. Michael Filipo from the Fiji Disabled Person’s Association as Deputy Chair.

The Working Group has been given the role of conducting factual, diagnostic and analytical work on meeting the basic needs of Education, Health and Housing.

Likewise, the group is also expected to, where necessary, undertake investigations on these topics and to make its recommendations to the National Task Team.

In the area of Education, the Working Group discussed three pertinent issues that affects this area and that is; the high cost of education, high drop out rate, and the fact that most school leavers are finding it difficult to find jobs because the school curriculum does not provide the necessary skills for employment.

The group will be aiming at formulating policies with the objective of decreasing dropout rates and increasing completion rate at both primary and secondary school levels.

In addition, they will be assessing the issues of amalgamation of schools to improve efficiency and to eliminate the concept of race based education institutions.

It will also assess the current education system and whether or not it provides the necessary skills and knowledge to be useful in the labour market.

In the Health Sector, the group is expected to make recommendations on improving the quality of health care delivery, reviewing legislation covering such areas as hospital charges and fees, doctors and dentists and improving the terms and conditions of health professionals.
AFinally, in the area of Housing, the group is required to consider ways in which to increase the provision of low cost housing with accompanying facilities such as water supply, roads and recreational facilities including recommendations on policies that would quickly and easily release land for housing development.

21/02/08