School
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Mon 8 Jul 2013 10:19
|
School is taken extremely seriously in Fiji. Every
village has its own primary while a network of secondaries may require pupils to
board during the week - common in island communities. Pupils are invariably
immaculately presented in a smart school uniform in bright colours and seem
uniformly happy and cheerful. Here is a group walking home along a beach path on
Taveuni (there is no road):
 I'm not sure what the different uniforms signify -
one school often seems to have more than one uniform. The umbrellas guard
equally against rain and sun (Taveuni is carpeted in tropical rain forest, or
more accurately, tropical downpour forest).
And here is the school. Not the best angle perhaps,
but we couldn't resist the sign. Typically Fijian - 'Bula' means 'hello' or
'good day' or 'welcome', and washing on the line is a ubiquitous feature of
every Fijian home, seemingly every day. And notice too how well manicured the
school grounds are - they may not have much, but they look after it
well.
 School in Fiji is not free, even at primary level.
Most of the outer islanders are subsistence farmers so scraping the money
together to send the kids to school in a posh uniform is a huge challenge to
which they seem to gladly rise.
|