Queen Victoria School (Fiji)

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Queen Victoria School was founded in 1906 as a school for the sons of Fijian Chiefs. The school had two main objectives: to provide Fijian Boys with the necessary education and training for leadership and to ensure that Fijian Chiefs would continue to occupy a prominent place in their country. After cession of 1874, there had been much concern expressed about the future of the Fijian people.

[edit] Why Vulinitu?

The colonial administrators were quick to understand that Fijian society had a sophisticated social structure based on Chiefly authority and they believed and expected that this social structure could be reinforced, through education, to support the colonial administration.To achieve this end, the Chiefs were the most logical choice to be given priority in the development of education among the Fijian people with the ability and potential for leadership, testifies to the wisdom of that early initiative. Its impact is evident throughout Fiji's society.

The Fijian Chiefs' decision at the turn of the century to request the colonial Government to develop schools for the education of their sons was motivated by a strong desire to ensure the continuance of Fijian authority and dignity in a rapidly changing colonial environment. In this way, they hoped to ensure the protection of the Fijian people and enable them to play a role in the colonial administration. In acknowledgement of this the colonial Government built Queen Victoria School at Nasinu in 1906. The seriousness and gravity of the noble goals and Chiefs had for their people is reflected in the choice of the name of the school. The name "Vulinituraga" or "Vulinitu" (a school for Chiefs) was also born.

Queen Victoria School, as a result of the expressed wish of the Fijian chiefs, began as a unique institution for the sons of Chiefs. As a pioneer in Fijian education it was often identified with the future hopes and aspirations of Fijians. As the nation progressed, Chiefs realized that commoners were beginning to succeed academically so that Vulinitu was open to commoners as well. The rest is history with Queen Victoria School with perpetrating the vision of the Chiefs some ninety eight years ago. Queen Victoria Old Scholars occupy a "special place" in Fiji and have been in all facets of Fijian leadership some ninety eight years ago! The spirit to lead is encapsulated in the words of Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna when creating a motto for Queen Victoria School "FORWARD FIJI".

[edit] History

The growth of QVS has not been without its share of difficulties. From the rigours and Spartan life of its original home at Nasinu, the students shifted to temporary premises at Viti Levu bay during the early 1940's to enable their original home at Nasinu to be used for a military hospital. In 1947 at the end of the war, the need for trained teachers persuaded the authorities to convert the former QVS site to a Teacher Training College. At the same time, the rapidly deteriorating conditions of the school's temporary site at Viti Levu Bay raised concerns about the health of QVS students. New initiatives were taken to find an alternative site for the school.

The need to upgrade the education of Fijian beyond the middle secondary level had also become necessary in the face of changing social and economic values after the war. A new Queen Victoria School site was seen as a matter of urgent priority. In response to this need and with the intervention of the late Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, Sir Henry Scott bequeathed 205 acres of land at Matavatucou "to be used for the education of Fijian boys". Great changes in Fijian education were taking place at this time. The Provincial School Eastern at Lodoni was turned into a central school in 1947 and renamed Ratu Kadavulevu School (RKS). The Provincial School southern site at Sawani was developed into a girls school and renamed Adi Cakobau School, as a sister-school to QVS. In 1949 QVS was moved from Nanukuloa to Lodoni to await the construction of their new home at Matavatucou.

Life at Lodoni for the combined schools was difficult and trying. The two schools were administered separately in the same compound by a New Zealander and an Englishman and all aspects of school administration were duplicated in different ways according to the likes and dislikes of the two principals. Virgin farm land was to be developed, meals were frugal and jealousies between the two staffs and students were evident from time to time. At the same time, QVS students were trucked regularly to Matavatucou each week to start clearing their new school compound. For almost four years QVS lived in shared premises at Londoni before making its final journey to Matavatucou in Mid-1952. But despite these difficulties, those pioneering years provided valuable training and experience, comradeship and instilled in the students the necessity to work in cooperation with others. These years also taught the Fijian students the value of restraint, thrift and self-sufficiency. For QVS, it was a step further towards its permanent home at Matavatucou.

It is an expression of what the late Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna stated at the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone at Matavatucou on 19th July 1950.

“If we are looking to Queen Victoria School to provide us with the leaders we are searching for, it would be wise for us, Fijian, to do something to help ourselves …. and to create an endowment fund that will enable the Board of Governers to attract and retain a staff that will make this school really second to none in the Colonial Empire with the simple and modest motto Floreat Viti”.

In the early years at Matavatucou, there were talks of returning the school to or near its original site at Nasinu, but circumstances and development in Fijian education have generated other important priorities. At the same time, the last 39 years has seen great achievements at Matacatuvou, and if the popular demand for school places at QVS is an indication of the quality of education it is providing, then the goals set by its founders have been met. Over the years, the academic goals and emphasis have shifted from the “Qualifying and Cambridge Examinations” to the New Zealand School Certificate (NZSC) and New Zealand University Entrance (NZUE) examinations in the 1950’s and lately to our own Fiji-based curriculum. The small NZUE class size of 3 and 4 in 1953 – 53 has seen dramatic growth to an average of 75 sixth formers in the 1980’s. This growth reflects the rising level of academic attainment in the school.

Thousands of Fijian boys and a small group of girls have had the benefit of a Queen Victoria School education. It is evident that over the years the coalescing of the school’s Fijian character, the continued motivating influence of the chiefly expectation upon which the institution was founded and the school’s admirable record of academic success have spurred both Government and the school community, in particular, its Parents and Old Boys Associations to spare no efforts to ensure its continued success.

As envisaged by the Fijian Chiefs at the turn of the century, the sons of QVS are found in almost all walks of life today. Many of them reached the highest level of their professions and vocations: as teachers, school principals, ambassadors, scientists, doctors and medical workers, administrators, farmers, army commanders and police officers, sea captains, engineers, architects, jet pilots, trade unionists, university lecturers and professors, clerical workers, politicians, Heads of Government and Heads of State. Without doubt, they have and will continue to play an important role in the affairs of the country.

As in all good educational institutions, QVS’s success and achievement should be maintained and built upon for the benefit of future generations of students. The years have given it maturity and the difficulties it had encountered have imbued it with resilience. To enable it to keep its high standards, it is important for all its present and former students to uphold its name and all it stands for. Over the years, the efforts of the QVSOB Association have been commendable and this project is in direct support of the Ministry of Education’s recent policy of diversifying its curriculum in an effort to make “academic” education more culturally and vocationally relevant.

Those who have had the privilege of belonging to this unique institution are proud of its traditions and achievements. They share a common wish that this great Fijian school will continue to live up to the high educational expectations envisaged by its founders; that it will adapt comfortably to new social demands and, that those who enter it will gain knowledge and wisdom which they will use for the benefit of the Fijian people as our fore-fathers had wished.

[edit] Old-Boy's Network

The QVS Old-Boys Network, being a body primarily made up of Fijian chiefs, is notorious for it's wide-reaching power in the nation of Fiji, and it's list of alumnists are not only impressive, but many have positions of power and historical significance to the nation. Conspiracies are rife maintaining that this old-boys network functions to maintain indigenous superiority in Fiji. Amongst the alumni are such people as:

• Ratu Penaia Ganilau, former Governor-General of Fiji
• Ratu George Cakobau, former Governor-General of Fiji
• Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, former Speaker of the Fijian House of representatives
• Sitiveni Rabuka, controversial instigator of the Fiji coups of 1987
• Ratu Wilisoni Malani
• Savenaca Siwatibau, a Fijian academic leader and civil service administrator