The Queen Victoria School (QVS) Parents Teachers and Friends Association president, Filimoni Vosarogo, said they were concerned that the suspension of four teachers would affect students at the Government school.

Mr Vosarogo’s comments comes in light of child abuse allegations at QVS, where teachers allegedly stripped naked four boys and rubbed chillies on their genitals and mouth.

A Police investigation has been instigated and the Ministry of Education has suspended four teachers, including the acting principal.

“I was made aware of the allegations and the Ministry of Education took statements from the complainants,” Mr Vosarogo said.

“It was important to have parents’ representatives in the process and to ensure that the students whose statements were being taken were given the opportunity to freely express themselves to the investigation teams present in school on Wednesday.”

The association said they respected the Ministry of Education, Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission and Police processes that have started, and it looked forward to the outcomes of these investigations.

Mr Vosarogo said the association preferred that consultation took place prior to the suspension of teachers because these teachers had classes to conduct, exam papers to prepare and mark and finally, to prepare Year 12 and 13 for the external exams at the end of the year.

“These teachers, pending findings of fact, should be allowed to teach and continue classes during normal teacher student contact hours with no other assigned duties that would normally be expected from a boarding teacher,” Mr Vosarogo said.

“Due to the suspension, the language department is now three staff less.  That is a critical number close to exams and puts pressure on the remaining language staff to take on additional classes, exam papers preparation and marking approaching and during exams.

“We would be grateful if the Ministry of Education supplies QVS with replacement language department teachers in the remaining weeks of our sons’ education in 2020.”

The matter surfaced after parents of the alleged victims approached the Human Rights Commission.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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