Our warm welcome at Rukuruku Primary School

Rukuruku, with the school visible on the left

Rukuruku Primary School

Rukuruku was established in the 70s when people from the village of Taviya in the neighbouring valley felt there was no more room.  The primary school there was set up a few years later and has enjoyed particularly good progress over the last 3 years since the current Headmaster, Sevanaia, was appointed. Children aged between 3 and 12 attend, first in kindergarten, and then in classes 1 to 8 where 4 teachers take 2 classes together, (i.e. 1 and 2, 3 and 4).

Louis and Frankie looking across the playing fields by the school sign

The award of World Heritage Status this year to Levuka, Ovalau’s principal town is likely to put Ovalau more firmly on the map for visitors, and Bobo, our well-respected host at Bobo’s Farm, and the Headmaster at Rukuruku Primary School are keen to explore how Rukuruku and the school can contribute to showing the traditional culture to visitors. Most people visiting Ovalau stay at Levuka, and so Bobo and the Headmaster are proposing a day visit to Rukuruku, enabling visitors to get to enjoy a morning exploring the flora and fauna of the valley, whilst swimming in the river and down the natural rock slides that exist there.  In the afternoon, it is proposed to take visitors to see Rukuruku Primary School, and to enjoy a formal Fijian welcome, drinking from the kava bowl with the staff, before enjoying the warmth of the Fijian hospitality, with the children singing some Fijian songs and performing some traditional dances, including a “meke,” accompanied by their peers on their Fijian musical instruments. 

Whilst visitors will enjoy and treasure this experience, there are also direct gains for the school; it will help build the childrens’ confidence, and give something for the younger ones to aspire to as they watch their older peers perform, whilst any donations that visitors feel genuinely moved to give will be used to contribute to books and equipment for the children to use.

So it was not without a strong sense of privilege that Jules, Louis, Frankie and I trooped down with Bobo to be the very first to experience this visit - a trial run, in a sense.  The walk to the school from Bobo’s Farm involved wading across a river, climbing up some steep banks in a neighbour’s farm and then walking along a stony hillside road for about a kilometre.

Rukuruku’s lovely children

Singing a happy song for us on our arrival

Even as we approached the school, all 50 or so children from the school were sitting down in a shady spot outside one of the school rooms singing a welcome song for us. You immediately sensed that they were enjoying this, which is no surprise -  during the 10 days we have spent here already in Rukuruku, it’s rare to pass someone and not get a friendly “Bula!” - Hello. We were introduced to Sevanaia, the Headmaster, who hosted our visit from then on. There followed several other songs, Louis giving me an urgent “Daddy, don’t be so embarrassing” stare when I attempted to join in with the actions. We were then ushered to some chairs facing the large rugby field, where some of the older girls and then boys performed some dancing.  You were struck by how much preparation and effort they must have put into this, and you could see by looking at the younger observers that they would like to be up there dancing too. As the Head put it, this also gives the children a chance practice dancing, another example of where he is encouraging children to explore where their talents lie.

First the older girls danced for us.....

....then the boys danced

...then the whole school sang!

After this we sat down for some refreshments, some delicious local fruit including sugar cane that we haven’t had yet a chance to sample. 

Our boys were a little reserved at first, it took a couple of songs before they could even break into a smile  They both gained in confidence however, and after the dancing, they went off to play football with the other kids, while the adults drank kava from the welcome bowl, had a tour of the school, and then watched the children play.  The Headmaster was accompanied by two of his teachers and Bobo. 

The library was stocked with well-thumbed books, you felt that sending in more books would be a valuable way to contribute and we resolved to keep in touch via the website/facebook. 

Our boys then came back to us, looking distinctly exhausted and asking Jules for some water. They sat together for a while and began to speak with some of the children Jules had been entertaining.Jules explained to them about the slides we had of Louis and Frankie, and asked them if they would like to see these. We noticed while this was happening, some of the children were sweeping the classrooms and stacking the chairs onto the desks, an end of school routine shared by all children. 

Everyone respects the "Flag lowering" ceremony

At that point, school was coming to a close, marked by a formal flag lowering ceremony managed completed by the children. One of the older boys calling out the instructions to the carefully lined up children, who had organised and spaced themselves out whilst being guided by a boy barking instructions into a loudhailer. Another two boys drummed a beat whilst the flag was lowered.  The silence and respect at this point as everyone stood transfixed by the lowering flag was almost tangible. This was another example of how easily responsibility sits with the children. 

Louis and Frankie talking about home

Although school was formally finished at this point, about 20 children from the classes 7 and 8 filed into their classroom where we set up our Macbook. They obediently came in and sat down on the floor in silence, looking up at us expectantly. There were no staff present.  I explained the purpose and asked the kids if they’d be interested in seeing some pictures of the boys home and school life, they were keen to do so, so we carried on.  

Louis and Frankie with a few slides from home and school life in England

Our boys grew in confidence as we progressed, adding in comments about the slides and pausing occasionally to discuss further.  They listened and watched intently and laughed as we went through it. They particularly liked the shot of Louis’ wiggly bottom on the §Galapagos boat!  We then showed our “Goodbye South America” video, the children clearly enjoying the animal video elements the most. I suggested to the children that we’d love a group shot of the class, expecting a few minutes of chaos which normally follows such an instruction.  Within literally seconds, however, with no intervention whatsoever, the children had organised themselves into three rows - and were already smiling in anticipation of the shot!

The after school club!

After school......

We sat with the Headmaster and his staff for a couple of hours, enjoying more kava,and finding out more about the school and Rukuruku, whilst watching a couple of the older boys who had stayed to do rugby practice; their shooting was amazing, converting shot after shot from tight angles. Somehow it seemed appropriate that Fiji had only last month won a World Rugby Sevens competition, in Hong Kong. 

Sevanaia is clearly an inspirational leader for the school.  He is passionate about putting children first, and whilst the curriculum is there as a guideline, he empowers his teachers to engender in the children an attitude of discovery and desire to learn for themselves. We saw plenty of examples of where the children had taken some basic instructions on an assignment and then set about completing it very effectively in small groups. 

Sevanaia is also keen on equipping the children with knowledge of traditional skills, and so has introduced, for example, opportunities for children to participate in gardening and arts and crafts, again, to help children discover their own talents. He even had them helping to lay the tiled floor in one of the classrooms!

Julia with Bobo, Sevanaia and Leikine, the boys' teacher

The responsibility and sharing we see in the school mirrors a strong community ethic in the village, evidenced, for example, by the fact that the first week every month, local adults focus on cleaning the village, cutting hedges, cleaning drains and cutting the not inconsiderable school rugby pitch - which itself takes 15 people half a day! The sense of neatness and tidyness of the village as you walk around the village shows the civic pride and community spirit of the people of Rukuruku.

Our boys were very fortunate to be invited back to spend a day in class the following day, with their new friends (see separate blog entry “Louis and Frankie’s first day at school.......since October!”)  We’d spent a thoroughly delightful afternoon at the school and came away with a strong sense of the cultural traditions and values instilled there. We are very grateful to Sevanaia and his staff and children at the Rukuruku Primary School for the time and energy devoted to our visit.