Fiji is an archipelago of about 300 islands (100 inhabited) and 540 islets, spread over three million sq km, and has some 1,130 km of coastline. It has a population of almost 900,000. It is also home to a COL regional centre for the Pacific, the Pacific Centre for Open and Flexible Learning for Development.

 

School-age Population by Education Level1

107,856

 

74,034

Secondary

 

Tertiary

 

 

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Secondary Education
for the school year ending 20121

94.3%

 

85.7%

Female

 

Male

 

 

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Tertiary Education
for the school year ending 20051

n/a

 

n/a

Female

 

Male

 

 

Percentage of female teachers in 1

n/a

 

n/a

Secondary (2012)

 

Tertiary (2012)

 

 

1. UNESCO Institute for Statistics Data Centre, retrieved in March 2020

 

Literacy rate (2012)1

n/a

 

n/a

Adult (15+) literacy rate
Female

 

Adult (15+) literacy rate
Male

 

 

Economic Activity (2010)1

39%

 

78%

Adult (15+) economic activity
Female

 

Adult (15+) economic activity
Male

 

 

Political Decision Making (2014)1

n/a

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

 

 

Life expectancy (2012)1

73

 

67

Female

 

Male

 

 

1. COL gender country profile April 2015 

 

8.7 117.8
Fixed-telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants1 Mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants1

 

 

  
1.5 147.5
Fixed-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants1 Mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants1

 

 

  
44.6 50
Households with a computer (%)1 Individuals using the internet (%)1

 

 

1. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ICT Eye Country profile, retrieved in March 2020

 

Highlights

COL’s work in Fiji over the past three years has focused on promoting open educational resources (OER), policy development and course design, as well as identifying innovations to support teaching and learning in both formal and informal education settings.

Knowledge Management and Technology

  • COL’s Aptus technology is an off-grid, offline virtual classroom — a classroom without walls. Through Fiji’s Higher Education Commission, Aptus has undergone trials at local institutions. As a result of their success, it is currently being explored as a platform for OER in Fiji’s secondary schools and as a “library-on-the-go” to serve students in rural or remote locations enrolled in distance learning programmes at Fiji National University.

Learn more about Aptus.

Pacific Centre for Open and Flexible Learning for Development

  • COL and the University of the South Pacific work collaboratively in supporting the Pacific Centre for Flexible and Open Learning for Development (PACFOLD), a regional centre located in Fiji. The centre’s priorities include: advocacy for and capacity building in flexible and open learning for sustainable development; the development of regional and national policies on open, distance and flexible learning; and research in flexible and open learning.
  • The online community PACFOLD Learn was launched in early 2017.
  • Also in 2017, PACFOLD offered an online course on Flexible Skills Development, with participants from across the region.

Learn more about the Pacific Centre for Open and Flexible Learning for Development.

Technical and Vocational Skills Development

  • In 2017, COL welcomed participants from nine Pacific countries to a four-day regional workshop in Suva on OER course design for TVET. Created to address the needs and priorities of the Pacific island states, twenty-six TVET educators from 12 partner institutions attended.

Learn more about the Technical and Vocational Skills Development initiative.

Technology-Enabled Learning

Learn more about the Technology-Enabled Learning initiative.

Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth

Fiji is a member of the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC). The VUSSC partnership represents 30 small states of the Commonwealth dedicated to expanding access to tertiary education.

  • During 2016, COL co-facilitated an intensive week-long workshop on eLearning pedagogies and materials development using open and distance learning (ODL) and OER, with the support of the Teachers’ Educational Resource and E-learning Centre (TEREC) at USP. Participants were from Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

Learn more about the VUSSC initiative.

Partners

Partnerships are fundamental to COL’s work. Strategic partnerships allow COL to broaden its reach and engage at global, regional and national levels, while implementation partners support COL’s work in communities and institutions across Commonwealth Member States. Partners include multilateral organisations, regional bodies, national governments, government agencies, foundations, civil society organisations, public and private (not-for-profit) institutions and the private sector.

COL's partners in Fiji include:

  • Fiji National University
  • ​Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts 
  • Pacific Centre for Flexible and Open Learning for Development
  • University of the South Pacific