Studying flip side of an island paradise

It won’t all be sunbathing at tourist spots for a group of Tokoroa High School Students who’ve headed to Fiji.

The 13 senior business and health studies students, along with three teachers, left on Monday to spend 10 days studying different living standards and businesses in Fiji.

Health teacher Julie Teao said it was a chance for the students to learn firsthand rather than having to go off what someone else has said.

‘‘It will support our health programmes while also doubling as a cultural experience. We have studied poverty as one of our subjects in health but we will also be looking at diabetes because Fiji has quite high statistics,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s more of a case study that they can apply to their learning, taking on the whole contextual approach where you get to live and experience it.’’

Business teacher Sanjeena Chandra said both tourist spots and the ‘‘real thing’’ will be visited during the trip.

‘‘We are going to spend three days in a village called Delasui, go on a hike, spend time in a village school, and experience cultural activities,’’ she said.

‘‘We will be living exactly how they live during those three days,’’ fellow teacher Alisha Haare added.

‘‘We are going around Viti Levu which is the main island in Fiji and they will see everything,’’ Chandra said.

Haare said they were looking forward to the trip after working hard to make it possible.

‘‘We are excited now as we have done lots of fundraising and there has been great support from the community so we would like to thank all our sponsors,’’ she said.

Chandra said the build up to the trip started two years ago and they hope to make it a regular trip.

‘‘Each student had to come up with $1000 and we fundraised the rest. We started it in Year 11 and have been talking about it since and there are even a couple of students who haven’t been on a plane before,’’ she said.

‘‘Apart from one students it is also the first time for everyone to visit Fiji so we are thinking it is going to be a life changing experience.’’

Fiji has 332 islands, of which 106 are inhabited, and 522 smaller islets. Viti Levu and Vanua Levu account for around three-quarters of the total land area.