Societies and the school systems need to move away from the traditional focus on schooling and
concentrate on learning, says Vice-Chancellor Prof. Prem Misir.
“Schools need to develop the capacity of students to learn on their own; to become involved with
lifelong learning; and to develop a coping capacity for risk and change,” he said.
Speaking at the Fiji Teachers’ Registration Authority (FTRA) program at the University of Fiji,
Prof. Misir explained that while being in school was necessary (Fiji has universal primary
education), the emphasis now has to be on learning.
“The pursuit of a knowledge society requires a revolution in education that would remove all
traditional barriers to teaching, accessibility, curriculum, and quality,” he stated.
“Traditionally, teachers are the only resource of knowledge; where they present facts only for
students to have examination successes; in pursuit of the knowledge society, teachers should be
facilitators of the learning process, where they help students learn how to learn,” he quoted
Berryman, 2000.
Vice-Chancellor said that the focus should be put on learning because it helped in building a
knowledge society through the development of new knowledge, and innovation.
“Individual’s skills determine productivity and capacity to be innovative, in order to build a
knowledge society. The World Bank report (2011) demonstrates that skill levels in a workforce
forecast economic growth rates more reliably than do average time spent in schooling,” he
reinforced.
He concluded by saying that interdisciplinarity, internationalization, and industry collaboration
were significant in the modernization of education practices for building a knowledge society.
The FTRA program was attended by over 20 people from the education field as well as staff of
School of Humanities and Arts at UniFiji.
