New Secondary School - A beacon of hope

Submitted by Narayan24 on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 07:59

The Ministry had approved a capital grant of $30,000 for the renovation of a school building to house the new intake at the school.

The Ministry is looking to build a four-classroom block, a science laboratory, ablution block and a library to complete its assistance for the school.

A total of 30 students have enrolled for Form 3 at the school and four teachers, including the Principal, will manage the daily operations of the school.

In his address at Raviravi-Rukua Village in Beqa, Mr Jitoko expressed his gratitude to the people of Beqa and Yanuca for their fervent support towards the establishment of their new school.

He assured the people that the challenges with regard to post-primary education is finally over, now that education has been brought closer to home.

Mr Jitoko said one of the advantages of bringing education closer to home is that, students are very much in regular contact with their parents, which is something most island students miss when they leave their shores to come to Viti Levu for higher education.

Another advantage of setting up schools under the EDA programme is that it will reduce the dropout rate at these areas since most parents cannot afford to send their children for higher education because of the costs involved in transportation and school levies.

Mr Jitoko also reminded the committee and management of the school that they would have to reduce their levies now that the Ministry is providing assistance in textbooks, transportation, tuition and welfare scheme for those families who cannot afford to send their children to school.

He expressed his hope that the people of Beqa and Yanuca will now send their children to BYSS and not elsewhere as that would defeat the whole purpose of bringing education closer to their doorsteps.

Form 3 student Kalesi Gasau of Raviravi was all ecstatic about her new school. She said that the establishment of the new secondary school would surely lighten her parents’ burden and that she does not need to go to Suva and be with relatives as she would continue to be close to her parents while attending BYSS.

Kalesi also highlighted the high costs of transportation from Beqa to Navua as it was quite high. A person who wishes to hire a boat from Beqa would have to pay $100 and if he is lucky to have people assist in the boat fare it would then cost $12 per person.