The Ministry of Education has decided to close Ratu Kadavulevu School for the remainder of the week due to concerns for student safety and school property as a result of a protest by about 100 students at the school.
Parents are advised to make arrangements to pick up their children from school.
The protest is alleged to be targeted at the Principal of RKS, Arvind Prasad.
However, the Ministry of Education has not received any valid complaints regarding the school principal through its established channels for handling concerns regarding teacher and principal performance.
The Ministry says no issues have been raised internally in relation to the principal's performance.
Minister, Rosy Akbar says when you consider the extraordinary sacrifices that went into keeping Fijians safe from the COVID-19 pandemic and allowing schools to re-open, closing RKS for the week was not an easy decision.
Akbar says they know the vast majority of RKS students would prefer to stay in classes and stay focussed on learning, but so long as these protests pose a threat to student safety, that is not possible.
The Minister also urged parents to take this week with their children to re-affirm the importance of remaining focused on studying during the school term.
Ministry officials were at RKS earlier today to mediate and resolve the situation.
Rosy Akbar says they are trying to understand the students’ grievances.
Fijivillage is receiving information that some of these protesting students had said that they do not want Prasad as RKS Principal because he is Indo Fijian.
When we asked Akbar, she says she hopes that is not the case.
She also says she hopes some teachers, officers and parents are not involved in inciting students to conduct this protest as the education of the children is the main priority.
The Minister also confirms that some parents wanted to take their children for the weekend last Friday and some of these students have not returned to school this morning.
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