Teachers around Ba, Tavua and Nadarivatu were awarded their certificates in Occupational Health Safety and First Aid yesterday.

They had gone through an intensive two- week training by the Ministry of Education and as a result will be official OHS representatives in their various schools.

Minister for Education Mahendra Reddy presented the certificates to the 256 teachers.

OHS national trainer Veer Chand said the exercise was the first of its kind in the country.

“We have never had any of these training before. All these teachers were trained in different clusters,” he said.

“We have covered the basics of it. OHS is all about the safety of children in the school environment.”

He also said it was a vital tool for all teachers.

“It is important to teach these students at an early age so that they can be aware of their own safety.

Mr Chand said the ministry has targetted covering all the schools in Fiji.

“We have so far trained about 765 teachers in the West and we are hoping to finish up to 8000 teachers in the next four years.

Participant Komal Preteeka said: “This is the first time I’m taking up this course and I thank the ministry for this,” she said.

“Now we will be able to teach the students in our schools and we would like to see all teachers go through this training.

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