It’s important to keep racial politics out of the Education system.

Speaking to members of the Fijian Teachers Association yesterday, Education Minister, Rosy Akbar says Fiji needs teachers with strong moral values that will lay the nation’s foundation regardless of differences.

Akbar says that being a teacher comes with many challenges but it’s important to have a positive mindset towards work.

“If you take the race politics out, I am sure the values that we all have combined will bind us together. I do understand the challenges but you can’t say the education system now is worse then what it was before. We all have our experiences of how and what we went through in terms of promotions, in terms of postings and transfers.”

The Minister also highlighted issues of transfers which were brought to her attention by FTA members.

“We’re looking at the transfer policy. It is in the best interest of me that we keep couples together. Unfortunately yes sometimes the husband is transferred. It takes time for the wife or the other spouse to go but we’ll at that. Unfortunately a few incidents gives a general implication that we don’t want families to be together. We will look into that.”

Akbar reveals the Ministry is also looking at how best they can address a list of demoted schools heads and teachers that were given to her by unions.