School Using Recycled Tents for Classrooms

Valelawa Primary School, in Macuata still holds classes in recycled tents.

Other schools that used to face the same dilemma are located at Yadua Village in Bua and on Qamea Island, Cakaudrove (Laucala District School).

Common among these schools - classrooms were damaged during natural disasters and since then students have been accommodated either in temporary shelters or tents.

Laucala District School in the village of Dreketi was struck by a landslide in 2016 while Yadua Village School on Yadua Island was hit by Tropical Cyclone (TC) Yasa in 2020.

Recycling old tents

VPS was built by parents 70 years ago with four classrooms. The classrooms were damaged during TC Yasa in 2020.

The school is about one hour drive from Labasa Town.

It is located about two kilometers away from the main road and there is no bus service.

One of the three trustees of the school Hemant Kumar said early this year the wooden building’s foundation started shaking; the structure is now no longer safe for children and teachers.

“After the management notified the Ministry of Education (MOE) it had declared that it was not safe for children and they asked us to have the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji (BAF) to do a checkup for termites,” Mr Kumar said.

The tent at Valelawa Primary School in Macuata on October 3, 2024. Photo: Shratika Naidu

Kuruleca not aware

MOE Permanent Secretary Selina Kuruleca said in Labasa on September 25, that she was not aware about students studying in tents.

“There are only two maritime primary schools in our knowledge and we are arranging a barge to send the materials across,” Ms Kuruleca said.

“As for Valelawa Primary School I am unaware, but I can check.”

No response was made to the email sent to her one week after her Labasa visit for an update on findings about the school; since there hasn’t been any response.

Two-day school bazaar

VPS manager Dhirendra Prasad said they plan to have a two-day bazaar in school on October 19 to 20.

“We need to raise $1500 to be able to open a bank account in Labasa Town since we don’t have a separate school development account,” Mr Prasad said.

“Since the ministry has given us materials, we need to raise money for labour cost which is a huge amount,” he said.

He said the ministry was assisting them to build an early childhood education building.

“We’ve had many officials visiting our school and taking down reports, I can confidently say that they are fully aware about students studying in tents,” he said.

“I don’t know why Ms Kuruleca said she was unaware but I will ask the head teacher to make a follow up.

“You know very well there are strict rules, we can’t talk against the Government or ministry.”

He said their first priority was to make the building for preschoolers and then later see how they can build a building to move away the students from the tents.

“Of course we are not happy to see our children studying in tents because the condition is not good but then again we have no choice,” he said.

“There is no one in Valelawa that is rich to just fork out money to build the classrooms.”

He said the management would start off first with the bazaar and then after opening the bank account they would reach out to former students to help.

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