Island school - a dream come true
THE story behind how Yanuca Island got its first primary school is inspirational.
The elders on the island all had the same ambition.
They were united in the view that children on the island should at least receive the best primary school education possible, with the support of family and community, before leaving their homes to pursue further studies on Viti Levu.
This goal and dream became a reality in 1958 — a milestone achievement when the Yanuca Island School was established.
Emani Masi, one of the elders, shared his story as a pioneer student of the school.
He said the first lessons for Class 1 students of Yanuca Island School were held in a house near the beach.
It went on for a year before elders managed to construct a new school building to cater for all the children on the island.
Following a series of discussions, the elders decided that it would be best to ask the then government for assistance, which took a bit of time but he said some elders from the village were also employed in the civil service and they were very instrumental in the talks to make primary school education accessible to the Yanuca children.
Mr Masi said the place in which the school was situated was unique as it was further up from where the actual village was situated.
“If one was to walk from the village to the school, then they would need to walk up about 20 steps uphill before they could reach the school,” he said..
Mr Masi said this was also symbolic because parents and other elders in the village would often take their time to educate and encourage the children in their families to work hard in school.
He said travelling to and from the island was tough and back then, most parents on the island could not send their children to the mainland to attend school as it was costly.
“Children were forced to leave their homes after they completed Year 8 to pursue secondary and tertiary education,” said Mr Masi.
He said students either moved to Beqa Island or to their relatives in Suva if they wanted to complete their education.
He said this had been tough for families and especially on the students and this was one of the main reasons it was sometimes impossible for children whose parents lived on the island to complete their secondary and tertiary education in Suva.
Mr Masi said over the years, the number of children from Yanuca that moved to Suva to further their studies had also increased.
In July this year, United States ambassador to Fiji Joseph Cella opened the first school library for students of Yanuca Island School.
A Peace Corps volunteer Alex Widman who was posted to the island was instrumental in the construction of the
Children were forced to leave their homes after they completed Year 8 to pursue secondary and tertiary education. – Emani Masi
library also orchestrated the furnishing of the library and also the reading materials.
Mr Widman was repatriated to the US in March this year after the COVID-19 outbreak.
He was instrumental in the construction of the village hall, its sanitation facility, the school library and a play centre for preschool students on the island.
The school headteacher Rupeni Vutevute said the vision of the school was something he was passionate about and that was to empower children to be able to reach their full potential.
He said he had been serving in the island school for more than three years and over the years, he had noticed improvements in students learning and also responses from parents.
Mr Vutevute said the main challenge for students on the island was that they were not accessible to learning materials that students in town were accessible to.
Thus, he said he always worked with his teachers to ensure that they made use of the given learning resources to educate and empower the students.
The student roll at Yanuca Island School now stands at 180 and the number of staff at the institution stands at 15.