School a family affair
was officiated by the late Semesa Sikivou who was the Minister for Education.
A pioneer member of the school’s committee since 1972 - Bashir Ahmed said the foundation to build the school was a “family affair”.
He is also a long-serving member of the Fiji Muslim League.
Among the founders of the school were Haji Gulam Muhammad, Haji Abdul Karim, Haji Abdul Rahiman, Haji Muhammad Hanif, Haji Muhammad Ismail and Haji Shorab Ali.
“This was a family affair so before me, my parents, uncles and my in-laws were all part of the community running the primary school and I happened to be the son of the family,” Mr Ahmed said.
“They were very much attached to the Fiji Muslim League Nasinu branch as a committee at that time and were still progressing to build a college.
“In the year 1970, the committee decided they should have a college because there was no place for the primary school students to progress to.
“So we decided to build and in 1972 they built a six-classroom secondary school of which I was part of and it took us a year and a half to build.
“I was at that time still very young, I was 22 and was lucky to be part of the committee at that time.”
He recalled during those days people would not have cash on hand so donations collected by the committee assisted in the construction of the college.
“My father was a farmer and we used to plant rice and for every harvest of rice the committee used to come and collect a bag of rice as part of our donation to them towards the school.
“They used to take the bag of rice to the mill, turn it into polished rice and take the rice to the market to sell and convert into cash.”
Mr Ahmed said the committee comprised of about 20 individuals and when projects were undertaken for the school, there were a lot of volunteers to help.
“Most of the refilling of the concrete was done either in the weekends or after-hours until sometimes three in the morning.
“But I do give credit to Haji Gulam Muhammad who was the pillar of strength at that time and he was there full time basically because he was a businessman and he had a lot of commitment to be at the site and make sure that things were done.
“His whole family until today are committed and basically two to three families in that area are still part of the school.”
The school recently celebrated its 50th golden jubilee with ex-scholars having travelled from overseas to witness a journey down memory lane and while though opposition may have been strong in the beginning the fruits of the Muslim forefathers are now in abundance.
The name of the school was changed from Nasinu Muslim Secondary School to Nasinu Muslim College in 1989.
The school now has a roll of over 700 from different ethnicities.
NASINU Muslim College along the Kings Rd in Nakasi was established on February 1972 with a vision to develop the minds of students based on the values of Islam. Classes were held in a two-classroom building with four licensed teachers with a roll of 52 students. The school’s first principal was Suruj Lal Dip. Between 1973 and 1981 the school expanded with the construction of new buildings and the major building project