We stopped briefly at the Sigatoka Education District office. It was a sight – Principal Education Officer – Mr Seruppelu Udre and his staff were improvising well. They were working from this building which was once a staff quarters. It is not easy to deliver quality services – but this team were working well under the circumstances.

Recycling – a priority at Sigatoka District School

We arrived at the Sigatoka District School at about 9.00am. This school is just outside the town of Sigatoka and on a hill overlooking an area known as Rakirakilevu. The head-teacher Mr Mosese Nasau, a former student of Cuvu College (he was a year or so senior to us) and his staff were there to greet us. This is a very neat and tidy school. We were headed to the schools computer room. We delivered the workshop from this room from the next two days. The inclusion of a wireless modem was a big bonus – it made our work very efficient. Mr John Vincent – Senior Education Officer in the district. His attendance made a difference – it showed that the Ministry of Education was very supportive of the work we were doing in Sigatoka.

Teachers at the PD workshops

The attendance was very good – teachers from all 10 of the invited school attended. The participants and their schools were: Koronisau District School, Cuvu District School, Malomalo Primary School, Nokonoko District School, Wai District School, Tuva Primary School, Sigatoka District School, St Joan of Arc Primary School, and Rahmatullah Khan Memorial School.

Over the day we spent most our time on Photo Story 3 for Windows, WordPress, and Scratch. Setting up of school websites was seen as a valuable activity by the teachers. Schools appeared to have to been looking at ways to develop one for some time. However, the cost was a prohibitive factor. Schools received various quotes for building one of these. It was very good to see that all teachers succeeded with the applications – especially the website.

Teachers working on a website

We were treated to a nice morning and lunch by the school – prepared by the school canteen. The day flowed on very nicely. In the afternoon – Mr Mosese Nasau offered us a sevusevu – a kava ceremony of welcome and appreciation that is conducted by the Fijian community.

All files that were used in the training – including all the free downloaded software and a copy of the ict4fiji.wordpress.com website were saved in the folder for teachers to copy and use later one. The website page froze a few times – apparently the resolution of the data projector and the laptop were somewhat very different. So once I switched off the mirror option in displays – the problem was solved.

A kava ceremony hosted by the Head Teacher – Mr Mosese Nasau