Ucation In Fiji

[?]Isdirected Howl

[?] On Indian

( Contributed ) HEN an Indian delegate told a United Nations Committee that while European schools were 1 provided for” in Fiji the same not true in the case of Fijian Indian schools, he was some t astray in his facts, ice again is also noted the con ncy with which Indian spokes attempt to line up the Fijians them, in with their complaints, futility of this the Fijians have e quite clear. is interesting to recall that President of the Fiji Parents' Teachers’ Association, a Euro i organisation, recently made a lar complaint—except that it ted that the two European nmar Schools (the only Euro l secondary schools in the ny) had been consistently fed of funds. his 1955 annual report he ;d that, in 1954, £55,000 had been t on capital expenditure at ;n Victoria School, £40,000 on i Kadavulevu School (both ,n boys’ schools) and £43,000 on

Adi Cakobau School for Fijian girls. In the same year, £128,040 had been spent on various Indian schools.

He said his Association did not object to that expenditure. It was not complaining about what the other races got, but about how little was spent on European and part-European education.

A REPORT issued in 1946 said that the Girls’ Grammar School at Suva was rotten, that the building should be condemned, and that the Boys’ Grammar School was inadequate. Nothing has been spent since then on either school, and it is now very difficult to obtain ad mission to either.

The heavy Indian birth-rate —out of all proportion to the agricultural and industrial resources of the Colony—will continue to aggravate the problem, resulting in the mass production of clerks and shop-assist ants which cannot possibly find an outlet.

Those parents will be wise, in this age of specialisation, who will give their boys a trade which will always ensure employment and the oppor tunity of starting out later in life with their own business.

WHILE one sympathises with the Indian parent with several children, for whom he seeks education —a laudable ambition—the

question which arises is, Who is to pay for it?

If Mr. M. K. Raghu Ramaiah, the Indian delegate, had gone more closely into his facts he would have found that the European popula tion —which, per head of popula tion, pays more taxation than any

other race—receives the least re turn in the way of education.

It is unfortunate that the United Nations is so readily available for the broadcasting of statements which, as in this case, have no real foundation in facts and of which, as also in this case, there seems little opportunity of making re buttal at the source, and at the time.

Any survey of educational ex penditure in Fiji, particularly when considered in conjunction with taxation paid per head of population, suggests that any racial discrim ination made in Fiji in connection with education is directed against the Europeans.