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Fiji: confusion about right of Catholic schools to have a Catholic principal

Friday, September 14th, 2012

It has been alleged that Fiji’s Public Service Commission (PSC) refused to consider a submission from the Catholic Board of Education requesting that heads of their schools belong to the Catholic faith.

In a letter made public last week, Director of Catholic Education, Remesio Rogovakalali, said the PSC had turned down a Catholic Education delegation request for Catholic schools to have a Catholic principal.

“Our submission was to ensure that Catholic schools are headed by head teachers and principals who belong to the Catholic faith, to safeguard the Catholic character of Catholic schools,” Mr Rogovakalali said.

He said the rejection by the PSC could lead to the eventual death of the character, culture and values of Catholic schools and Catholic education in Fiji and Rotuma.

However, the Ministry of Education says it remains open to the staffing requests of schools run by religious institutions.

Minister for Education Filipe Bole said the ministry understood requests of schools run by religious institutions to have head teachers of the same faith leading the schools.

“Any school authority that needs the principal or head teacher to be of the same faith can approach the Ministry of Education and we will facilitate this,” Mr Bole said.

The Vicar General of the Catholic Church of Fiji said Catholics should know that all the teachers in Catholic schools cannot be Catholics.

While responding to the people who have been writing letters of protest in relation to certain appointments in Catholic schools, Father Beni Kaloudau said people should understand that the people taking up the positions need to meet the criteria as the government is paying for the teachers.
Father Kaloudau confirmed that following the rejection of the Catholic Education Board’s submission to the Public Service Commission for Catholics to be head teachers and principals of their schools, they are now lobbying for submissions to be made to the Constitution Commission.
He said all the Catholic Education Office wants is to bring back the previous agreement between the government and the church where consultations are to be held before the appointment of the school heads.

The Public Service Commission permanent secretary Parmesh Chand is out of the country and will comment when he returns.

There are 63 educational institutions in the Catholic education system. These include 44 primary schools, 17 secondary schools, one teachers’ training college and one vocational institution.
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