Teachers, students stage hunger strike
ON August 19, 1980, The Fiji Times published a report about some teachers, parents and students from Ba who staged a hunger strike.
The headline read “10 in hunger strike at Ba”.
The report stated 10 Ba teachers, students and parents began the hunger strike in protest of the Ministry of Education’s “unresponsive attitude” to grievances they had submitted in April of that year.
The hunger strikers built a temporary shed at Tabua Place, near the Education Office in Ba, where they had to bed down at night for an indefinite period.
And they were surprised when more than 100 students joined them to support the protest against the ministry’s “inaction”.
Those leading the hunger strike were two DAV College teachers Surya Deep Singh and James Singh.
They were joined by another teacher, Parasram Goundar, a farmer, Ratu Rupeni Naqini and three students.
The students were Sashi Lata, 17, Jai Prakash, 16, and Rajesh Bala, 16.
Mr Surya Deep Singh said they would live only on water and were prepared to go on indefinitely until the ministry paid attention to them.
The hunger strike stemmed from two issues which prompted a major protest march through Ba Town in April that year.
Issues raised included the licensed teachers who the protestors felt should be trained by the Government and then absorbed into the civil service.
The protestors in Ba felt that licensed teachers employed by committees were faced with job insecurity.
The second issue was their demand for the ministry to give them a list of students who were being educated on government scholarships at institutions in Fiji.
The protesters from Ba said the ministry had favoured rich students and failed to give enough scholarships to poor and deserving students who should have been given the first chance.
Mr Singh said the sit-in protest in front of the Ministry of Education office was over by lunchtime.
He said it was sad that the Minister for Education, whom they invited to come and speak at the gathering, failed to turn up. He added the minister was sent a petition signed by about 5000 people in Ba urging him to come and state the ministry’s position on their grievances.
“Yet it is so sad to see that he is not bothered to reply,” he said.
“The only alternative left for us is to make them realise the situation was to go on a hunger strike,” Mr Singh said.
“We hope the ministry realises that we are not doing it for mere selfish ends but to make known a real problem.”