Kartika Kumar grew up idolising her teachers and wanting to become one herself. Having a brother who is a teacher further fueled her zeal for teaching. Thus, it is no surprise that she is a teacher today.

“I strongly believe that teaching is a noble profession which creates all other professions.”

Kumar graduated with a Bachelor of Secondary Education (English and Geography) from Fiji National University’s (FNU) College of Humanities and Education (CHE) in May 2020.

“I have the best memories of my time at FNU as a student. I made lifelong friends there. It was a new culture, everything was different and challenging, but as the saying goes ‘time teaches us everything’.”

Upon completion of her programme in November 2019, she applied for her teacher registration and was successful. She was lucky to be posted to a school at the beginning of the school year in January 2020.

“Many times, it is difficult to get a posting straight away. I think I was very lucky. I was thrilled when I learned that I was given Suva Grammar School as my first posting as I wouldn’t have to go anywhere far and would be staying with my family here at home.”

Kumar anxiously looked forward to her first day teaching a new class.

“Since I had done two practicum sessions, I had a fair idea of what to expect. My first day was perfect, I enjoyed it. I was able to familiarise myself with my colleagues and the area around the school fairly quickly.”

She was assigned to Year 11-04 as an Assistant Class Teacher.

“I teach Social Science for Years Nine and Ten and Geography for Year Eleven. There is an average of 40 students per class. We have six periods daily, some days I have four classes while on other days I have five. I use my free periods to organise myself by familiarising myself with the notes, setting up my work station, marking, updating the workbook and so on.”

A few months into her teaching career, Kumar had to adapt very quickly to the new scenario posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Since the first case of Covid-19 in the country, schools have been closed. The term-end breaks were shifted up a week and once that was over new ways had to be devised to continue some form of teaching so that students keep learning while being on a very long ‘break’.”

As per the directives of the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) teachers were expected to prepare worksheets for parents to collect for their children.  She and her colleagues worked very hard to make it happen.

“Parents were notified well ahead of time on the days they were to pick up the files for their children. Students use the files to keep up with lessons. They submit their tasks online. We mark and provide feedback online as well. We also have a Viber group created to assist students in every way possible.”

Kumar says that Suva Grammar School also has an online platform for learning.

“We also have our Suva Grammar Google Classroom, which was created amidst this pandemic by the ex-scholars to assist students. It allows for interactive learning. Each student has a unique username and password, like Moodle.”

“This is a challenging time for everyone. It will be in everyone’s best interest that students take the initiative to learn, regardless of whether they are primary, secondary or tertiary students. At the end of the day, it is about your future.”

Kumar’s advice to all students is to make the most of the time available and use whatever resources available to them to learn something new.