Students of Taoa Government Primary School on Vava’u in Tonga will now be able to study in new classrooms.
The Australian High Commissioner, Adrian Morrison commissioned the new building which accommodates three classrooms.
“Some countries have large deposits of minerals or they have access to rich fishing grounds or they have vast tracks of fertile land,” Mr Morrison said.
“They are fortunate, but the most valuable resources a country possesses, more valuable than minerals or fish or plantation of vegetable and fruits for export, the most valuable resource a country possesses, a country has, is its people, because it’s people who add value to those minerals, to those fish or the fruits of the land, so we need to invest in our people and the best investment we can make in our people is to educate them,” he added.
“Taoa means loosely, as many spears, and what we are doing is helping these kids ready themselves for the battle ahead, sharpening themselves and their spears, but this reminds me of what Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you use to change the world. Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world,” pe ko e me’atau mālohi taha te ke ala ngāue’aki ke liliu ‘a māmani´ ko e ako.´ Students, if you want to change the world or your world, education is your most effective weapon, your most effective spear. You can use education to overcome poverty, you can use education to improve livelihood, you can use education to strengthen relationships within your communities and in Tonga,” said Minister for Education, Siaosi Sovaleni.
“We are very lucky to receive such kindness at this time. We hope to make good use of this new building to improve education here in Vava’u, especially in our village Taoa. We cannot thank you enough but we want you to know that we appreciate this gift very much. Again, a big Malo ‘aupito from us students,” said ‘Atasa Lātū, a student of Taoa GPS.
The new building was constructed under the Pacific Resilience Programme (PREP) led by the MEIDECC and co-funded by the World Bank and the Australian Government.
The PREP project is involves the construction of 33 new classroom buildings and repairing 10 classroom buildings.
This is a total of 110 classrooms in Tongatapu, ‘Eua and Vava’u of approximately TOP$28 million.
Photo supplied