Back to School.... ... in Tonga

 

The three room school building.

Hein's report:

I went to school in Tonga!!! Here they wear school uniforms, which for the boys is a white button-down shirt and khaki shorts. They teach all subjects in Tongan except for the subject English, which of course is given in English. School starts at 8:30AM, everyone works for two hours and then has a fifteen minute recess. During recess we play tag and run around. After recess school is in session for another two hours till 12:30PM, at which time the lunch hour starts. All the children go home to eat lunch. I eat lunch on the beach. My Mom brings food from the boat. Then everyone comes back to the schoolyard and in the time that is left we play hide and seek. In the afternoon there are two more hours until school is over at 3:30PM. Sometimes during classes, the teacher's cute little two year old daughter wonders through the classroom.

There is a higher class and a lower class. The lower class is ages 5 - 8 and the higher class is ages 9 - 12. The higher class has morning school that starts at 7:00AM!! In the beginning of October there are exams. You have to pass those to go to government school. If you want to get a good job you should make sure you go to government school.

 

My friends and I hit the school "bell"

I like the school bell. It is an old refrigerant tank that you bang on with a piece of rebar (i.e. metal). I also like that we had an hour lunch break.

In my old school everyone has their own desk, books, ruler and eraser. In Tonga they do not. You sit with two to three people at one desk and you share rulers and erasers. The benches, that you sit on are hard and have no backrest. The school is a three room school house. The lower grades 1 - 3 (5 - 8 year old) are in one room. The upper grades 4 - 7 (9 - 12 year old) are in a different room.

Upper grades: I sit in the front row, my sister Jet sits in a rear row.

The last room is the library. Walter Hays, my old school, has four rooms per grade from Kindergarten to 5th grade and a large library. In Tonga the houses of the teachers, where they live and sleep, are on the school grounds.

 

The headmaster's wife and child in front of their house.

Jet's report:

 

The entire school

Do you recognize any faces in this? Well I am the girl in the left hand side of back row of the picture! The reason that I put on a school uniform (Ugh!) and braided my hair was that Hein, Eltjo, and I went to a school for three days in Matamaka.

 

Trying out the school uniform that Roxanne lent me.

This school was very different from Walter Hays, here is a chart to compare:

The "play structure", a Banyan tree

 

 

Ringing the school "bell"

 Unfortunately how ever different the schools are the basics are still the same, for it is still *school*. Please help me continue my search for a school with only four subjects: recess, lunch, games, and parties.

 

Mr Lavakei'aho teaches the upper grades

 

My friends (Roxanne left), and I share a desk.

Jet & Hein:
We want to thank the staff and students of Matamaka GPS for hosting us at the school these last few days. It was a great experience. Thank you very much!