Point of origin | 81 years on: the birth and rise of Toko Sanatan Primary School

KNOWLEDGE enlightens.
These were the words that the forefathers of the Arya Samaj faith in Fiji lived by when they began building schools in Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
One such school is the little known Toko Sanatan Primary School near Vatukoula which, for 81 years, educated Fijians of different ethnic groups.
School manager Dhirendra Singh says his paternal grandfather Ram Charan Singh and maternal grandfather Ram Pal Singh were among a group of girmitiya descendants who believed in the power of education.
“The school used to be called Toko Arya Pathsala Primary School when it first opened in 1942,” Mr Singh said.
“The founders of the school included my grandfather from both my father and mother’s sides. They lived in Tavua when the Arya Samaj leaders came to their community looking for people and locations to build a school.
“At that time the Arya Samaj Fiji was led by the great Pandit Ami Chandra, who was truly a visionary man of his time.
“He taught Hindi, mathematics, English and hockey.
“Then there was the honorable Vishnu Deo whose name is very well known in the history of politics of Fiji.
“The late Vishnu Deo was another visionary leader who saw the importance of education and this is evident in the schools he founded in Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
“Together with other leaders such as my grandfather and my maternal grandfather, they decided to establish Toko Primary School.”
In May this year, the school celebrated its 81st anniversary with the unveiling of a monument dedicated to their founders and to girmitiya.
Mr Singh said it was important for the school management to remember their founding fathers, including the girmitiya who contributed to Fiji’s development.
“This monument is in remembrance of all girmitiya who came to Fiji,” he said during the unveiling ceremony.
“The girmitiya had a very tough time and were tricked into coming to Fiji.
“My girmitiya great grandfather, Thakur Baldeo Singh, came to Fiji in July, 1884 on the SS Newnham with more than 500 other girmitiya.
“He served as an indentured labourer for five years in Drasa, Lautoka.”
Mr Singh said girmitiya such as his great grandfather paved the way for their descendants to settle in Fiji where they have been able to establish institutions in sectors such as education.
“It is because of them that now we have schools like Toko Primary.
“So, it was very important for us to put up a monument that will always remind us of our forefathers and their hard work.”
School head teacher Gulshard Ali said Toko Sanatan Primary School has produced many successful leaders, sports persons, academics, doctors and engineers.
“It is only through good education that we can achieve a common identity and propose a set of principles and moral standards to take our nation forward to unity and prosperity.
“It is through education that we can transit and inculcate values of life, tolerance and good citizenship while upholding our rich variety of faiths, traditions, languages and culture.
“This was the vision the school founders had in establishing the school.”
Since its establishment 81 years ago, the school’s first concrete building was built in the mid-1950s while the school’s first kindergarten was built and opened in 1985. In 2019, a new and improved kindy block was opened after the old building was damaged by Tropical Cyclone Winston.