The Fijian Elections Office [FEO] launched Fiji’s first voter education curriculum for Year 10 school students this morning.
The curriculum which is called Introduction to Elections: A Learning Module for Year 10 Social Science, consists of the following materials:
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- Students Workbook;
- Teachers Manual; and
- Mock Election Kit
The Electoral Commission Chairperson Mr Suresh Chandra during the launch said “the curriculum handed over this morning will train 16 year olds about the Fijian Electoral Process.”
“In 2 years’ time, these 16 year olds will join the over 620,000 already registered Fijians as voters.”
The curriculum has 5 lessons and the last one is the culminating activity which is a mock simulation practical activity.
This curriculum is aimed at giving a hands on experience to students who have not yet reached the age of eighteen [18] to actually learn how to cast a vote.
Students will use the Mock Election Kit consisting of mock election materials to conduct a mock election activity in their schools. Some of the materials in the kit include ballot boxes, ballot papers, voting screens, Voter Instruction Booklets and VoterCards.
The FEO has printed 40,000 mock ballot papers for this project. In this activity, students will play and demonstrate the role of the SoE, Presiding Officer, Polling Day Workers, Observer, Media Official, Polling Agent and voters.
The mock election activity is simplified keeping in mind the ability of Year 10 students to understand and absorb the required information.
Three videos have also been developed for this purpose which will assist the teachers and students to conduct Voting, Counting and Seat Allocation.
The FEO has printed 20,000 copies of Student’s Workbook and 2,000 copies of the Teacher’s Manual which will be distributed to 16,105 students in 178 secondary schools throughout Fiji.
This website has user friendly and disability friendly features such as text-tospeech feature which can be utilized by students who are visually impaired. Students and teachers can access the website by using the web address www.votereducation.feo.org.fj.
The FEO has also conducted two [2] phases of Training of Trainers [ToT]; the first being for FEO Core Staff and the second for FEO Trained Trainers who will be sent out in the field to train 348 Social Science teachers Fiji wide.
Supervisor of Elections Mr Mohammed Saneem said “the Fijian Electoral Education Centre will conduct nationwide short trainings for social science teachers to ensure that there is consistency in the delivery of the content.”
“There is also a section for teachers on the FEO Voter education website to provide access to more materials that may refine their delivery of the materials. A voter education website has also been created for this activity.”
“The efforts of the developers of this curriculum is in line with the Electoral Commission’s theme, ‘Raising the Standards in the Delivery of Elections in Fiji’ and this is something we are very proud of,” said Mr Saneem.
“This year, we expect more than 16,100 students to go through this course in Term 1,” he added.
In addition, videos of ToT will be uploaded on the voter education website for those teachers who need to revisit certain areas of the curriculum
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