Australian Govt to upgrade Suva Primary School

Great news for students of Suva Primary School as the Government of Australia will be funding the upgrading and refurbishment of the school.

The announcement was made today by the High Commissioner of Australia to Fiji Ewen McDonald during the launch of the Infrastructure Assessment Report for Suva Nausori schools.

He says this report provides a comprehensive engineering assessment of 86 schools in the Sua and Nausori area, providing a baseline of information that is critical for making informed decisions about where to best prioritise future support.

McDonald says Suva Primary was identified to be in need of infrastructure improvement and investment.

He says the buildings are getting a little older and need remediation to meet the demands that are coming in from the surrounding area.

The Australian High Commissioner highlighted that they will also fund the construction of the long-awaited Davuilevu Secondary School.

He says this high school, many people will know that the school has had students accommodated in tents for a long period of time since its establishment in 2016.

He adds the growth along the corridor means the investment in this school is critical to open secondary schooling for many hundreds of students.

The Commissioner also revealed that Australia will build new wash facilities for 45 schools across Suva and Nausori, which means these schools will receive new toilet blocks.

He adds that another thing that came out of the report was access to adequate water sanitation and hygiene facilities, including toilets and sinks.

He says we all know the impacts of that on the health and dignity of students and teachers.

McDonald says this was felt most acutely by female students and globally this often leads to reduced participation, poor academic performance and increased dropout of girls from school.

He adds what they are going to do is to comprehensively upgrade these schools to deliver a modern school that meets the needs of generations of students to come.

While officiating at the launch, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka acknowledged the assistance and support from the Australian Government and said that most of our infrastructure is in a deteriorating condition and it's expensive to upgrade.

He says the Government is committed to assisting with all school upgrades and investments are being made to have school cyclone proven.