As Yat Sen School marks the 90th anniversary of its Primary School and 40 years of its Secondary School, former Principal and pioneer Mrs Bessie Ali reflects on the beginnings of Yat Sen Secondary, the values that shaped the school, and the responsibility of a new generation to carry its legacy forward.
For Bessie Ali, the name Yat Sen still brings to mind a simple but powerful image: “a group of happy, well-adjusted, goal-oriented students.”
It is an image that has stayed with the former Principal across the decades and, as Yat Sen celebrates the remarkable milestones of 90 years of its Primary School and 40 years of its Secondary School, one that captures what she believes has always been at the heart of the school its students.
Mrs Ali’s own journey with Yat Sen Secondary began before its doors had even opened.
In 1985, she was head of department at Marist Brothers High School when then chairman Edmund Mar approached her with an unexpected proposition: a new secondary school was being established and he wanted her to head it.
Mrs Ali initially hesitated. She was happy at Marist and jokingly told Mr Mar that she had even been given “a nice big cupboard” in her office and was reluctant to leave.
When she went home and discussed the offer with her husband, his response put the decision into perspective.
“What’s the difference between a cupboard and a school? Which do you think is better?”
“It was so obvious,” Mrs Ali recalled.
She accepted.
Building a school from the ground up
What followed was, in Mrs Ali’s words, a “whirlwind of activities”.
While still working at Marist, she would cross over to Yat Sen after school each afternoon to help prepare for the new Secondary School.
Nothing could be taken for granted.
There were desks to design and order, a science laboratory to establish, teachers to recruit and even a school uniform to create.
A competition among Yat Sen Primary mothers produced the original girls’ uniform a peach-coloured dress. It proved impractical, but part of that original design survived when the uniform changed to a blouse and skirt: the distinctive pleats were retained in recognition of the mother who had created the first design.
There was also the fundamental question of whether there would be enough students.
The expectation had been that many Yat Sen Primary students would naturally progress into the new Secondary School.
Instead, some families initially chose established schools such as Saint Joseph’s Secondary School, Adi Cakobau School and Marist Brothers High School.
The fledgling school advertised in The Fiji Times and applications arrived from across Fiji, including Vanua Levu.
“Fortunately, a number of Yat Sen students joined us, and the rest came from elsewhere,” Mrs Ali recalled.
“That’s how we started.”
A community behind its school
Mrs Ali readily acknowledges that taking responsibility for a new school was a significant step.
She had been a head of department and had no previous experience running an entire school.
But she found strength in the people around her.
She remembers the strong backing of the Board of the Chinese Education Society, the staff and an active Parent-Teacher Association.
That community support, she believes, was one of Yat Sen’s great strengths.
While every school followed the curriculum prescribed by the Ministry of Education, Yat Sen benefited from a Board made up largely of professional and business people, an already established PTA through the Primary School, and a carefully selected group of teachers.
Together, they gave the Secondary School a strong foundation.
But there was also a deeper purpose.
Mrs Ali says her focus was to live up to the expectations of the school’s founding fathers, who had established Yat Sen not simply to educate young people academically, but to do so within an environment that maintained an appreciation of Chinese culture.
That cultural identity was reflected through Chinese language teaching in the Primary School and cultural activities at Secondary level, supported at different times by trained teachers from Taiwan and China.
The focus was always the students
Asked what she is most proud of from her years as principal, Mrs Ali does not point to buildings, examination results or personal achievements.
She returns instead to the students.
“I also tried my best to focus on the well-being of the students. Every decision was made in the interests of the students.
“The focus was always the students.”
The qualities she hoped Yat Sen students would take into adulthood were equally straightforward: humility, kindness and empathy.
Today, meeting former students remains particularly meaningful for her.
“It’s very heartwarming when I meet them, and I can see that they are happy, successful, well-adjusted and making a contribution to Fiji, their beloved country.”
It is perhaps one of the clearest measures of the educational legacy Mrs Ali and successive generations of teachers sought to build not simply successful students, but people prepared to contribute to the country they call home.
A Chinese-Fijian story
Mrs Ali’s reflections on Yat Sen are also inseparable from the wider history of Fiji’s Chinese community.
As an educator and author, she sees the school as part of the story of a relatively small community establishing roots, preserving aspects of its heritage and contributing to Fiji.
Despite its small numbers, she said, the Chinese community had sought to make a contribution to the country in appreciation for the welcome Fiji had extended to it.
“We have tried our best to do our bit, and we thank Fiji for giving us the opportunity to do so.”
That sentiment gives Yat Sen’s 90/40 Anniversary a significance beyond the passing of years.
It is a celebration of generations of families, teachers, administrators, students and community leaders who invested in education because they believed in what it could make possible.
Looking to the next 40 years
Four decades after the establishment of Yat Sen Secondary, Mrs Ali remains optimistic about the school she helped build.
She hopes Yat Sen will continue pursuing the excellence that has characterised its journey and that each new generation of teachers will develop the potential of every student and help young people fulfil their hopes and dreams. Her anniversary message, however, is also a challenge.
As former students, teachers, families and friends celebrate 90 years of the Primary School and 40 years of the Secondary School, Mrs Ali asks the present generation to remember that the Yat Sen they inherited exists because others were prepared to build for a future they themselves might never see.
“Please do for the present and future generations what our predecessors did for us,” she said.
“That would be an acknowledgement of the contribution and sacrifices of the founding fathers of the school who dared to dream.”
It is a fitting message at an anniversary that looks proudly backwards but must also look forward.
The desks and laboratories may have changed. The peach-coloured uniform has long disappeared. Generations of teachers and students have passed through the classrooms.
But Mrs Ali’s reflections suggest that the measure of Yat Sen remains remarkably consistent: a school grounded in community, conscious of its heritage, committed to excellence and, above all, centred on its students.
Ninety years after the Primary School began its journey and 40 years after the establishment of the Secondary School, the dream continues entrusted now to another generation.
Right: Mrs Ali
sitting in the middle, with staff of Yat Sen
Secondary School Language
Department.
