School
School overview
Free Bird Institute is an English language school, which was established by the approval of the Ministry of Education in Fiji islands. It's not really known in the world that Fiji's official language is English only. And there was no English language school in Fiji before the establishment of FBI (Free Bird Institute). Since the day of opening the school until 2015, 15,000 students from 29 different countries have graduated with great experiences and memories.
Campus
Nadi campus (capacity of 300 students) is located in Nadi, where the largest International Airport in the South Pacific is. Lautoka campus (capacity of 300 students) is located in Lautoka which has the largest trading port in the South Pacific. Each campus has WI-FI, Travel agency and school canteen.
Why is it so reasonable?
Free Bird Institute was established with a unique concept.
Like the education in other western countries, people had high motivation in education. As a result, the education fee had
increased in Fiji. However, the decline in birth rate started in 2000, which leads to the situation that there are only 500
students in the school of 800 student capacity.
Therefore, half of the school building was closed with cobwebs. The school teachers had to work at restaurants and Hotels even
though they are qualified and had graduated from universities. Free Bird Institute proposed for school establishment using the
abandoned school buildings and employing the teachers who were supposed to be working at schools to Fiji government, then got an
approval.
The World Happiest country=Paradise Fiji
In addition, FBI developed Homestay homes where students can experience high level of hospitality from Fijians who have the highest index of happiness in the world. (By Leger Marketing in Canada, December 2014) The high level of Fijians' hospitality is also chosen and featured every year by the book of Lonely Planet and this is something we should really admire. Students in FBI learn not only English but also "What is happiness?" while experiencing Fijian hospitality.
English leaning curriculum
The local Fijian teachers who have English teaching qualification use the special English curriculum edited by Cambridge University. The textbooks are free for rental. The lesson hours are 5 hours from 8AM to 2:30PM. There are sessions for students to learn basic grammar and reading, and also sessions for communication like conversational talks and debate. Placement test will be given on the first day and the students are assigned suitable levels for them. There are 7 levels （1. Starter, 2. Elementary, 3. Pre Intermediate, 4. Intermediate, 5. Upper Intermediate, 6. Advance, 7. Business）and class change can be done according to each students' speed of learning.
Business Information
English language school『Free Bird Institute』was established as an educational institution in Fiji islands in May, 2004. Later, it was incorporated to a firm (Ltd) according to expansion of organization. Free Bird Institute Limited started offering stock as a Public company in December 2013 and is still expanding the organization.