Education Fiji Project #8763

Educational Capacity Building in Fiji

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Nov 9, 2015
Navunisea School- Electricity in the Library

By Kate Robey | Head of Operations

We're getting electricity!

Dear Supporter,

Students, volunteers, and teachers at Navunisea Primary School (NDS) have benefitted hugely from the addition of the library in 2014. It provides a space where one-on-one work, literacy groups, planning and training can take place. As well as housing reading resources and teaching materials! Now we are using your donations to connect the library to the electricity supply.

Why do we need electricity at the library?

Now that the project is really taking shape as a focused literacy programme, a large part of our work entails creating resources to support literacy and phonics work which is easy to understand and deliver for volunteers. These resources mean that volunteers with little teaching experience can have a meaningful impact in school.

Producing consistently high-quality resources requires the use of laptops in order to research and create materials. Long term volunteers, or those with special expertise, are identified by staff to further develop the project according to its core objectives. However, currently they can't work on the project, instead they head back to base so that they can use IT equipment, connected to the electricity supply.

This makes it difficult to ensure that they are maintaining important contact time with pupils and the school and splits the team up. It means that they are not with NDS project staff and, therefore, unable to have guidance and input from those who know the project best.

During 2015, NDS staff have also become involved in the delivery of professional development to teachers in the district. This is a fundamental factor in making our project sustainable by sharing knowledge and best practice for a long-term impact. Training sessions have had to take place in the school office or unsuitable classroom spaces in order to access electricity.

In addition, Silana is fast becoming a hub for community development, education and awareness related to our core objectives in the district. The ability to host workshops for adult education, community health and women's empowerment at our library would be both practical and would further showcase our unique partnership with this community and school.

Thank you for your donations, which make improvements like this possible. We can't wait for power to be installed!

With Gratitude,

GVI- FIJI

Links:

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Sep 2, 2015
Education in Navunisea District School

By Kate Robey | Charitable Trust Operations Manager

The NDS Library

Dear Supporter,

GVI has now been working at Navunisea District School (NDS) since April 2013. Our key focus at the school is improving English literacy because the school has some of the lowest exam results in mainland Fiji. English is the language of instruction in spite of being a second or third language in Fiji. This has a huge detrimental effect on student's success.

There are also many other factors impacting on education in the area. These include a livelihood based on subsistence farming and fishing, often demanding that children contribute to the plantation and household chores, poorly resourced schools and teachers, and a lack professional development for teachers. NDS currently has two composite classes meaning that space for teaching and learning is very limited. Crowded classrooms and the absence of teaching assistants has posed a huge challenge for children at the school historically.

During the first quarter of our third year at NDS we have radically developed our literacy programme at the school. Thorough assessments of pupil's reading levels have been made and books in the library have been classified accordingly. This enables both teachers and volunteers to match children with 'just right' reading books and literacy activities, vastly increasing their interest in English and fostering a love of reading.

Volunteers now take literacy groups according to ability and focus on guided reading and comprehension activities with pupils. Teachers had also identified creative writing as an area in which pupils struggled. Volunteers now deliver a programme of composition workshops for classes 5-8 and there is a writing corner in the library where pupils can come to engage in creative writing activities and prepare for exams. The development of good writing skills is vital, not only for the future prospects of our pupils but also for their self-expression, empowering them to advocate for themselves and their communities.

This programme has been supported by additional training for volunteers to ensure the quality of support delivered, as well as professional development workshops for local teachers in the areas of literacy, writing, and classroom management. The library offers a great venue for training courses as well as a space where resources can be created and shared with the school.

We thank you for your continued support of this project.

With GVI-Fiji

The library area being used for art classes

One on one lessons in the library

Links:

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Jun 10, 2015
Composting Toilets for Dawasamu Secondary School

By Kate Robey | Charitable Trust Operations Manager

Dear Supporter,

The flush toilets at DSS require constant, costly maintenance and ongoing plumbing and water source issues make them unpleasant and often unusable for the students. A frequent lack of toilet paper means students often resort to using pages from their notebooks which in turn blocks up the fragile plumbing system. When water pressure runs low in the dry season, the problem is exacerbated and children face the unacceptable prospect of going to school without adequate sanitation facilities. The two new composting toilets eliminate all of these issues in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. They are also cost-effective and more pleasant for the students and staff to use.

The generous donation from the Stelly School Group allowed GVI to start work on the project. Students from Stelly School and GVI worked hard to lay the foundations of the structures before the Expedition team came in to finish the job. Both buildings have two toilets inside. Only one is used and once that is full (approx. 6 months) it is sealed and begins the composting process and the second toilet is then used.

In order for the compositing process to take place the staff and students must know how to correctly use them. GVI volunteers worked with students to identify the benefits of composting toilets and then provided training on how to use the toilets and ways to ensure proper upkeep. The volunteers combined activities such as poster making, quizzes and tours of the facilities to fully engage with the students ensuring that all students understood all sides of the concepts and methods involved with this new sanitation system.

Now that the construction and awareness lessons are complete, both students and teachers can start using an alternative sanitation system that is both environmentally friendly and sanitary.

Thank you for your continued support to Fiji.

All the best

GVI Fiji

Links:

www.gvi.org

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