Queen Victoria School students will return to their school on Monday almost one year after Tropical Cyclone Winston severely damaged it.

The Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, will open the rebuilt and refurbished school next week, the date to be finalised.

Students will meet a complete new set of teachers led by acting principal, Seru Banuve, who was principal of Vunisea Secondary School, Kadavu, last year (Report, page 3).

They will also meet the first batch of Year 9 students selected especially from rural and maritime areas under a policy to bridge the gap between urban and rural education and give everybody a fair go.

Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Mahendra Reddy said yesterday the first school term would start on Monday as scheduled.

He said Monday would be enrollment day and classes would resume on Tuesday.

“All the students know that they have to come on Monday and classes will start on Tuesday,” Mr Reddy said.

“Everything is ready. Just final tuning, cleaning up and putting the beds inside the dormitory, that kind of stuff,” he said.

“But the only thing happening is that the Chinese contractors are doing additional reinforcement to some of the buildings and that will continue by another month or so.”

After the cyclone devastation in February last year, QVS students were placed in other schools where they sat their internal and external examinations.

He dismissed attempts by some people to create doubts in the minds of parents and children that school would be deferred because repair work would not be completed.

He said the old existing kitchen was still functional and would be replaced as ordered by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

“At the kitchen, there’s old equipment and it does not look good. We need to change the whole thing like we have done for RKS. Prime Minister’s office had funded the RKS project,” he said.

“Yes, the kitchen can still operate. Things will open as scheduled.”

He said it could cost $120,000 to construct a new kitchen.

The line-up of teachers is well balanced in gender and ethnic representation. Quarters for married and single teachers are also ready.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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