Wairuku Primary School’s claim to fame dates back to the late 1800s.
That’s when the Rakiraki-based school became the first to be established by Indian labourers who had come to work in Fiji as indentured labourers.
Hence, for over 120 years, students have been going through the gates of this institution of learning, which started as Wairuku Indian School in the late 1890s and located just outside the town in Vaileka today.
But someone famous had walked the corridors of the school in its pioneer days when it started as a tiny, thatched bure in the middle of what is now a playing field.
That someone was Ratu Sir Josefa Lalabalavu Vanayaliyali Sukuna, who was born into a chiefly family on Bau.
His father, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, was the son of Ratu Mara Kapaiwai of Bau.
Ratu Joni enrolled Ratu Sukuna at Wairuku Indian School in Ra.
The school was founded in 1898 by Pandit Badri Maharaj, who was born in 1868 in Bamoli Village, in the state of Uttarakhand, India.
Maharaj came to Fiji as an indentured labourer in 1889 and through hard work became a successful farmer.
He later served from 1917 to 1929 as the first Indo-Fijian member of Fiji’s Legislative Council, the forerunner to the present Parliament.
During Ratu Sukuna’s years at Wairuku, his father Ratu Joni, who was appointed Governor John Thurston’s deputy in Ra in 1889, worked as Roko at the Ra Provincial Council office in Nanukuloa.
School records of the late Statesman’s years at Wairuku are scarce.
However, whatever remains confirmed he was one of the pioneering pupils of the school.
Through Maharaj’s interaction in the community, the school acquired the services of Anglican priest Reverend Charles F. Andrew whom the founder met in the office of Robert Crompton, a renowned Fiji lawyer at the time.
Alongside Henry Marks, John Maynard Hedstrom and Henry Milne Scott, Crompton was one of the ‘big four’, the group that heavily influenced Fiji’s economy and political sphere in the first half of the 20th century.
It was at Crompton’s office that Rev Andrew supposedly agreed to take up the appointment as head teacher of Wairuku Indian School.
According to the publication The Fijian Colonial Experience: A study of the neotraditional order under British colonial rule prior to World War II authored by Timothy J. MacNaught, to boost Ratu Sukuna’s education Rev Andrew was retained as a member of Ratu Joni’s household at Nanukuloa.
Under Rev Andrew’s guidance, Ratu Sukuna became proficient in English and mathematics even before he went on to secondary schooling in New Zealand to become the first Fijian to matriculate to university.
School records show that Rev Andrew’s first pupils in 1898 included “Ratu J.L.V Sukuna (later to be Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna), B. Raghwan Nand, Shiu Lakhan, Miss Snow, Bechu and Santa Bai”.
Rev Andrew carried on his work as Wairuku’s head teacher until his death in 1950.
Mr Hay, another European took over as teacher and taught from 1905-1907.
He also taught in a bure.
In 1907, a Mr Bihari Lal, a Punjab graduate, took up the appointment of head teacher until 1911.
From 1912-1920 Pandit Moti Chandra and Parshotam Mudaliar, a Madras university graduate taught at the school.
When Pandit Moti Chandra retired, Pt Shiri Ram Sharma, a fully trained teacher in vernacular from India, taught with Mr S.G.Sanderson who died at Wairuku in 1927.
After the first bure classroom, the school slowly progressed to one single wooden building made up of three rooms.
Around this time, there were two pit toilets for girls and two for boys.
By 1920, Wairuku Indian School building, made of iron and wood, was erected at a cost of 300 pounds including a grant of 100 pounds which was given by the education department.
The building was destroyed in a hurricane in 1930.
After this disaster teaching continued under trees and in the kuti area (temple).
The grand festival of Ram Leela at that time was staged at two places in Fiji.
Wairuku Kuti was one of them.
The father of Wairuku Indian School, Badri Maharaj died in 1931.
Another building was erected at the Ram Leela site and children were taught at this new building till 1961 when during Ram Leela festivities, the school got burnt down.
School continued under the trees and in the kuti for two and half years.
In 1963, with the support of the people of Ra and other organisations, Ratu Sukuna’s former school was rebuilt and has served the community to this day.
If you travel from Vaileka, Rakiraki’s Central Business District, towards Tavua, you’d come across a huge “Wairuku Primary School” billboard on the roadside with the words “established since 1898”.
The moral of this story is this, any student anywhere can be successful in life and rural schools, despite their many inadequacies, can spawn leaders and iconic achievers.
While school facilities and easy access are advantageous to the student, they do not guarantee a student’s progress and prosperity in life.
We have many inspiring stories of PhD degree holders, outstanding businessmen and women, career civil servants and national leaders who have made it to the top despite their humble backgrounds and the poor condition of schools that started their journey of learning and selfdiscovering life, and instilled in them the values of perseverance and dedication.
Tomorrow, we celebrate the revival of Ratu Sukuna Day holiday and pay homage to the legacy of an iconic figure revered for his distinguished scholarship, military and community leadership, and statesmanship.
Held just over a week after the historic Girmit Day holiday, Ratu Sukuna Day reminds us of the opportunity we now have to forge forward toward a new beginning.
The reconvened GCC, the revived Ratu Sukuna Day and the inaugural Girmit Day holiday should somewhat encourage us to work together as one united front and caution us about the fact that we must to safeguard, defend and liberate all encompassing matters of all Fijians, and respect the rule of law.
Let us all work together for Fiji and so that nobody is left behind.
Until we meet on this same page same time next week, stay blessed, stay healthy, stay safe, and have a happy Ratu Sukuna Day break!
