FUNCTIONS

• To encourage and facilitate special education within the framework of government policies and priorities.
• To ensure the implementation of special education policies in the nine districts as well as coordinate activities which would promote the development and improvement of special education services in the country.
• Liaison with support agencies and clients eg. Special Education School committees, Teacher Unions, Advisory Provincial Council, Regional/International Organizations eg. JICA,JOCV, National Council of Disabled Persons, Coordination Committee on Children.
• Assistance to Lautoka Teacher's College Special Education One Year Certificate Level Course for licensed teachers.
• Supervision of distribution of special schools quarterly grants.
• Co-ordinate and run professional development for special schools as well as regular mainstream schools.
• Provide educational awareness / outreach programs at village and rural grassroots level.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Approval and acceptance of the Blueprint of the Affirmative Action on Special Education by Cabinet on 2nd September 2002. This policy documents outlines a ten-year action and budget plan from 2003-2013. We acknowledge with deep gratitude the contribution of the Commissioned Education Team who worked tirelessly for six months to produce the spirit of this Social Justice driven document.
• Five days of In-service for six Special Education Schools in Suva (60 special education teachers and assistants) and nine primary schools in Suva - (70 primary teachers). Shared information on effective teaching strategies for all children. Also addressed effective classroom management skills, strategies to avoid corporal punishment and Reading techniques for beginning and low-progress readers.
• Communicated with all schools through telephone, writing and visits. Met most of the school communities at the national sports meet for persons with disabilities in Suva and Nadi for the western schools.
• Represented the Ministry of Education into the Coordinating Committee on Children, Child Justice Committee, Project Heaven, Vision 2020, National Council for Disabled Persons, FTA JEE (job evaluation exercise) committee.
• Met and discussed issues of special education at international level with officers from JICA,ACROD, ILO, AUSAID, inclusion International, and ESCAP.
• Special Education is grateful to the Government of Japan for its support in providing five volunteers who are teaching in the Special Schools, provision of transport for our schools, infrastructure, computers, and equipment and indeed in the refurbishment of the Sunshine Special School in Lautoka and the Fiji School for the Blind. Seven Professional s from the Shiga Prefecture visited Mr. Hiroyuki Horikawa a JOCV at the Early Intervention Center. They brought gifts for the children in the form of computers, cameras and toys for the children.
• JICA sponsored three teachers to attend courses ranging from one week to three months. The Senior Education Officer for Special Education attended a four-week course in producing educational materials using Desktop Publications. She also attended the ESCAP Meeting with Setareki Macanawai and three other young people with disabilities at the Shiga prefecture. Mr. Macanawai was awarded with an International Award in recognition for his global contribution in the area of inclusion for persons with disabilities. At the Shiga Prefecture local government, we were able to negotiate support for the implementation of the Blueprint for special education in terms of training of our teachers in Shiga, Japan.
• We record with deep gratitude the continuous expression of interest and support given throughout the year by the JICA representative to Fiji - Hideki Tomobe San.
• Provided Educational Awareness and Outreach through the Radio programme - Domo ni Vanua, Ministry of Women district representatives, PTFA at Delainamasi Primary School and the Kinoya Methodist Church . From 11th -29th December 2002 we visited thirty villages and settings in Cakaudrove to share
  Information on special education. We also learnt a lot of useful information.
  These outreach was aimed to sharing information in order to bring about a mindset change in people in the hope of affirming positive imaging and acceptance of persons with disabilities in their families, homes and communities. The community members received this exercise positively as it was very new for them. More of this to be conducted in 2003 onwards.