General News

Teachers want sign classes

THE Fiji Catholic Teachers Association will make a submission to the Catholic education board for the inclusion of a special education lecturer in sign language at the Corpus Christi Teachers College in Suva.

Association president Paulo Vueti said this was one of many issues raised by members during the two-day annual general meeting at Cathedral Secondary School that ended yesterday.

He said: "Another issue was to have a special education lecturer in sign language at Corpus Christi which is a teacher-training college for student Catholic teachers.

"This will contribute to inclusive education for hearing-impaired students in primary schools."

He said CCTC graduates would then be able to use sign language to help children with disabilities.

"When these student teachers go out into primary schools, they have the knowledge to cater for children with disabilities instead of passing them on to special schools," he said.

"Another issue was the teacher-student ratio. The normal ratio would be one teacher to about 30 students.

"Most Catholic teachers have very big class sizes. The ratio would be around one teacher to 50 students.

"This has been a recurring problem."

Mr Vueti said expanding the school structure to include additional streams could cater for the alarming teacher-student ratio in Catholic schools.

He said these developments would depend on the availability of funding.

"The current college grant from the Ministry of Education is about $100,000 and that's not enough to provide quality education for student teachers."

Mr Vueti said the resolutions would be forwarded to the Ministry of Education by the Catholic education director.

Source: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=146099

Email from: D_and_d_sub@mail.jetro.go.jp