Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has revealed his favourite chapter of the 2013 Constitution in his Constitution Day message.

“My favourite part of our Fijian Constitution is Chapter 2 Section 31: The right to education,” he said.

“You have to be a parent to fully appreciate how the right of every Fijian to early childhood education, primary and secondary education, and further education has put dreams within reach for our people.”

He said when he was growing up, so many families had to sacrifice the education of their children because of the financial burden of school fees, the price of textbooks and the costs of transporting their children to school. But in realising the right to education mandated by our Constitution, he said his Government had made education free.

“We have made textbooks free, we are subsidising the cost of transporting children to school, we have vastly expanded access to early childhood education and we have given unprecedented funding to tertiary loans and scholarships to empower more of our people to achieve their ambitions of higher education.”

He said the best part of his job as Prime Minister was opening and upgrading schools, talking with students and seeing them access new opportunities.

Mr Bainimarama said in the eyes and aspirations of those young people, he saw the future of the country. Their work to realise the right to education, he said ensured that the coming years hold incredible promise for the nation and the people.

He said he knew he was not the only one who had been amazed at the submissions they had received so far for the #Our Constitutional Challenge they had been running on Facebook this week.

“I’ve been humbled to hear what so many of you love about our Constitution and the spontaneous  creativity of your submissions.”

He said the signing of the Fijian Constitution was the culmination of hopes and dreams Fijians had held for generations.

“It represents far more than words on paper.”

Mr Bainimarama said its mandates formed the foundation of our democracy and the range of civil, political and socio-economic rights it enshrines rank Fiji’s Constitution as one of the most progressive in any society, at any time in human history.

This year’s Constitution Day marks the sixth anniversary of the introduction of the Fijian Constitution.

Edited by Percy Kean

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