Dear Editor – A piece of lamentation over our once renowned educational institutions was written to you by one J R Williams.
His reflections or rather reminiscing on those good old days is something we and our leaders need to do from time to time, especially these days.
A company statement I saw some years back said something like this, “The past we inherit, the future we build.”
Reading Williams, I believe we have lost our inheritance of the past here.
We do not inherit that past now, so the cause of concern for my friend Williams here.
This is extremely vital as far as our current education system is concerned.
Like Williams, I grew up in a time and was part of the experience where a student coming from one of the schools like KGVI, Tenaru, Selwyn, Su____u, Goldie, Siota, Aligegeo, Waimapuru, Betikama, and so on, were highly respected.
To graduate from HTI, SITC, Ranadi Marine school would be even more than what SINU is at the moment.
Just the mention of you coming from one of these schools make those around you give you the respect you deserve.
Whether a student was in uniform or not didn____t matter. The public would immediately recognize you as a student from one of those schools.
This has changed dramatically in a little more than just twenty years or more.
Nati, in a line on one of his songs described the students these days as becoming stupid (student ba go go stupid nao). Why? Because they no longer behave as students should.
The principle of teaching then was the teacher-centered principle, and the the chalk and blackboard was method. Very simple.
The students, like empty vessels as it were, were filled in with knowledge and the teacher was the one having the knowledge.
Nothing more besides a few textbooks that are often shared between pupils and you____d be lucky to have someone share with you.
Yet, most of you holding prestigious positions in the public and private sectors were part of this simple teaching principle and method.
You write better and correct English grammar and can solve math problems easily than even our form seven students these days.
In fact, our students these days can____t write proper English, even at university level. Some of them still can____t read, even at secondary and tertiary levels.
This is supposed to be an age where teaching principles and methods are so diverse, that learning is expected to take place so easily.
One such principle is the inter-active learning principle with different methods applied, yet learning has not really occur as expected.
The learning outcomes now are below the expected level than what it used to be with simple methods.
So we ask ourselves what has gone wrong?
Let me tell you what I personally believe happened, is happening, and will happen.
Before churches were able to operate and run schools, it was the colonial government that operated most of the schools.
English, for example, was only taught as the language of administration and politics.
Local languages or dialects were the language of teaching/instruction.
However, as churches took on more responsibility in teaching their own curriculum within their ethos and doctrinal beliefs, the teaching focus also shifted.
Solomon Islands, being a christian nation with the christian churches taught moral ethos. The students were taught not just to read and write, but also taught to be industrious.
They were taught the fear (to honour) of the Lord, to love/respect their fellow beings and to have self-respect for themselves.
As a Christian nation, Bible was the center of learning where all other areas of learning must connect to.
This molded the young person for his lifelong learning to be conscious that we owe God the fact that we live and have our being, and be thankful for what we have and for those around us.
This has made them able to act in a certain way, dress in a certain way, talk in a certain way, and interact in a certain way.
The students can either go to public schools later on, but the Christian ethos they learned stayed with them. Even our public schools did teach Christian ethos as well.
Now-days? I am not sure anymore!
Why am I telling you this? Well a review on our education act is undertaken as we speak.
You and I don____t know what the impact of that review would be on our education system. Would it still uphold our Christian principles?
Would our Church schools still be able to teach our ethos and especially our biblical ethos?
Personally, from the first day I____ve learned that the government is paying the salary of our church teachers, knew instantly that we are headed for a big problem.
It now means that the government can mess up with our beliefs and ethos and could do whatever they wanted, even change the curriculum, and take over our schools.
A classic example is here in Fiji. The government literally takes over even church schools. They can put anyone they wanted to teach in those schools even if the church concerned disagrees.
And so you have Hindus, Muslims and non-Christians becoming headmasters of Christian schools.
The other day I went to drop off my kids in one of the schools. At 8:00 am the siren went off, and then Hindu prayers were offered.
Just about 50 meters on the other side, the high school is offering Muslim prayers.
After about 10 minutes of Hindu and Muslim prayers, the headmaster once again played over the PA system chanting and readings based on pantheistic teachings. India being the center of pantheistic teaching have most of their teachers take headmaster positions here in Fiji.
It____s too late for Christian churches here in Fiji to reverse this as the two religions mentioned have much influence here; and since Fiji is declared a secular state, Christian churches can____t do much than watch while non-Christians are running the show now.
How about us? Are our church education authorities able to make an impact on the discussions in this review?
Are we going to accept anything that____s handed down to us? Are we going to allow non-Christians run our schools and mess it up?
I tell you, more is still coming.
After this, the new curriculum to be taught in all schools the world over would by all means attempt to erase God the Creator as well as Jesus Christ out of the picture.
They would like as much as possible to get rid of the first twelve chapters of Genesis from being taught in our schools. They would put evolution as part of the curriculum instead to be taught in place of the Bible.
They____d like us not to believe that God created this world in six literal days, neither do they want us to believe that God created us in his own image.
This is to promote evolution.
So you see, if they want us to go in that direction, then they must first destroy the foundation of our Christian education system.
They must first destroy what worked so that we are confused and accept what is offered us.
That____s the nature of how things work in our world today, and if we are not protecting our christian values and ethos, then we are going to jump into the bandwagon.
It____s about time we take ownership of our church schools again.
It is time we take this to our church members and frankly tell them about the situation and encourage them to faithfully return their tithes and offerings so that we can pay our own teachers as we used to do.
I share the same sentiment my friend Williams have.
We used to have very reputable schools in the past.
The reason being that our schools taught christian principles and ethos.
We put God first in all that we taught and do.
I have discussed as an example what is occurring here in Fiji now, that can and is coming to our country.
Finally, let me say this. When man attempts to put God out of the picture, history tells us that humanity went through the darkest times in their history.
Think of communism in Russia and what eventually ended in the French revolution. Millions of lives were lost and man was no different from a stray dog in the streets.
There was no development, millions and millions of lives were lost and human life became so debased that life was becoming meaningless.
And if we are going to take that path again, then my friends, we are in for a disaster far worse than previous histories put together.
I just wish and pray that our Church leaders and Church education authority leaders seek spiritual guidance as you take part in this review, so that we do not compromise our Christian ethos and values for what is temporal.
May God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son reign forever in our lives and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit be ours as we face these challenging times now and in the not too distant future.
Jackson Ray
Fulton College
Nadi, Fiji Islands
