The Ratu Kadavulevu School’s Student Council has claimed that the school Principal, Arvind Prasad has made a lot of changes within the school system like abolishing the tradition and culture of what RKS is known for.
In a letter that was delivered to the Ministry of Education, the Student Council claims that some of the changes that the Principal made includes the removal of the RKS prominent competition known as the Sovanivalu, not allowing the school chaplain to enter the school premises and the replacement of their meke practice every Wednesday by a dorm level meeting.
The Sovanivalu is the house competition for most disciplined, best cleanliness and academic of the year.
The Student Council also claimed that the Principal had told them that by the end of the year, the school roll should be 500 and that is why some students were suspended.
They claim that their Principal has never had an assembly and that is why students who were playing rugby were suspended because it was not addressed in the assembly.
The RKS Student Council claims that they have many food shortage complaints and when they had informed the Assistant Principal, he said that the Principal is looking into it.
They have also questioned in their letter if the Principal is also teaching in any class as he has not been teaching as every teacher is being employed to teach.
They claim that the flag raising ceremony that was done over the years has been removed and it has been done anyhow now.
Meanwhile, the RKS Old Boys Association has confirmed that they support the Student Council in this regard and so does the PTA.
The Old Boys Association President Alivereti Yaya says they will be visiting the Prime Minister today to raise concerns about the changes that has been made by the Principal like abolishing the tradition and culture of what RKS is known for.
The Ministry of Education has decided to close RKS 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.
The Ministry of Education says it has not received any valid complaints regarding the 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 focused 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 yesterday to mediate and resolve the situation.
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 yesterday morning.
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