The Ministry of Education, with assistance from the Australian Government, has set up four divisional counselling hubs across the country. This announcement was made by Ministry of Education permanent secretary Selina Kuruleca during a public submission on the 2022 Audit Report concerning the Social Services Sector.
According to Ms. Kuruleca, “One counselling hub is located in the North, one in the East, one in the West, and one in the Central region.” Each hub is staffed with a full-time counsellor. Ms. Kuruleca noted that the support from the Australian Government has also enabled the training of 32 counsellors.
She expressed the goal of not only maintaining the four established positions but also expanding to include counselling roles in nine districts and larger institutions, particularly government boarding schools, as potential candidates for additional counsellors. “If we had a wish list, we would hope to have a thousand counsellors for all our thousand schools,” she added.
During a meeting with stakeholders earlier in the week, participants agreed that ideally, each counsellor would manage the needs of five schools, which suggests a requirement of around 200 counsellors. She mentioned that ongoing discussions would take place between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Civil Service regarding job descriptions and salaries.
Furthermore, Ms. Kuruleca highlighted that the Fijian Cabinet had approved the reintroduction of school chaplains in government schools to address social relationship challenges. The Cabinet also supported cost-sharing for religious educators in non-government schools, allowing them to utilize part of their administrative budgets for this purpose.