Fiji’s education minister Dr Mahendra Reddy told the manager of a Catholic school to privatise it he he wanted the school to have Catholic teachers.
“Once you privatise your schools you can appoint your teachers, you pay their salary, you look after the school and we will not interfere with you on whom you appoint or who is your teacher,” Reddy said.
He was responding to a request from Holy Family secondary and primary school manager Paul Tierney for a Catholic head teacher.
Tierney had said that he understood there was a memorandum of understanding (mou) between the director of Catholic Education and the ministry, particularly with the appointment of principals or head teachers in Catholic schools.
Reddy responded by saying the MOU is not binding, not like the memorandum of agreement (MOA).
He said, in addition, that the MOU was signed sometime back and it did not have an indefinite life.
Reddy went on to say that the ministry had an open recruitment merit system and it was dependent on the the applications received for the position.
He said the ministry could not refuse to appoint someone to a particular position because of their faith, race or gender.
“That is Government’s job. We advertise saying open recruitment merit system, equal opportunity to get employment and it does not say for a particular post that only Christians can apply or only Catholics can apply,” he said.
The exchange took place during a talanoa session at the Lambasa Civic Centre on 1 May.
Source
