2 May 2002

Fiji Teachers Union wants affirmative action programmes extended to multi-racial schools

9:20 am on 2 May 2002

The Fiji Teachers Union has blamed the Qarase government for infesting the country's education system with racism.

The union has called on the government to extend its affirmative action programmes to multi-racial schools instead of restricting them to indigenous Fijian schools.

The general secretary of the union, Agni Deo Singh, says if affirmative action covers only indigenous schools, then thousands of Fijian students at other schools will fail to benefit from it.

He says while the government should open-heartedly help indgenous children, students of other races should not be deprived of their right to education by the government of the day.

Mr Singh has also called on Indo-Fijian teachers to vigorously make their contribution to better indigenous Fijian education.