Teacher Treks Through Highlands To Deliver Worksheets For His Students
Most of the college students he visited live in the interior of Navosa.
Friday 27 August 2021 | 10:10
TOP: Teacher Rajneel Rohitesh (right) with some of the students in the highlands of Navosa.
The simple lifestyle with his family at home at a farming community in Batinikama, Labasa, has taught Rajneel Rohitesh to be content.
The daily hard work his parents went through on their sugarcane farm ensured he and his siblings got three sets of meals a day and a roof over their heads.
This created a humble spirit in the now young man who is a teacher in a rural setting.
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Values he learned has carried him a long way through life after he was posted in 2012 to the then Bemana Catholic Secondary School in Navosa, now called Saint Therese of Lisieux College.
Recently, the teacher was praised on social media for his tireless efforts in walking three to four hours a day to deliver worksheets for his students.
Most of the students live in the interior of Navosa like Navitilevu, Nakoro, Draubuta, Namoli, Nasouvarua, Sonokonoko, Nakorolevu, Natoka, Nabuabua and a few others.
“I have been going to these villages when I started teaching even during the school breaks,” he said.
“Because I enjoy walking and the highland-living I reached Namoli Village. I took some students and we walked to deliver worksheets to students in the different villages.
“It takes about three to four hours to walk from one village to another, we can cross the same river about 10 times.
“We can walk for hours to deliver even only one worksheet and as a teacher with the ‘no child is left behind’ policy, it is our duty when it comes to learning and teaching.”
Since the college is a boarding school, he said the students attended classes and were able to keep up with their Catholic faith.
“Students are the most important stakeholders. They are the reason we teachers are in school and if they will not be in school then there is no need for teachers also.”
Mr Rohitesh acknowledged the Ministry of Education, the school principal, Sanjay Prasad, the Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish Priest and school manager, Father Atonio Naqasa, for providing the opportunity to reach out to the students amid the pandemic.
Mr Rohitesh has been teaching Accounting and Economics at the school for nine years.
He is now pursuing his Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Leadership at the University of Fiji.
