Felix Chaudhary 
Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad says the Coalition Government is addressing the teacher exodus issue by recruiting more teachers in comparison to those who are leaving of have left.
During debate on the Education Ministry’s annual reports for 2018 to 2020 in parliament today, he said they had recently recruited 1600 teachers, compared to the 100 who had either retired or resigned.
He also said at present, the Coalition Government was funding 13,325 teachers, up from 12,793 at the end of 2022, a net increase of 532 teachers.
Professor Prasad hit out at Opposition parliamentarians, labelling the FijiFIrst government’s education policies while they were in power as “haphazard, ill-conceived and out-of-touch.”
He singled out claims made by former FijiFirst MP Hem Chand that teachers were leaving in large numbers under the current administration.
“He was talking about mass migration of teachers, teachers are leaving because their salaries are not …let me give you real statistics from the Ministry of Finance and the funding we provide,” the Deputy PM said.
“We are currently funding 13,325 teachers, up from 12,793 at the end of 2022, net increase of 532 teachers
“So, in fact we are hiring more than the rate of resignation, we recruited 1600 teachers and only 1000 had retired or resigned.”
