Avuavu Secondary School

Center circle at Avuavu School

The entrance to Avuavu School

Avuavu Secondary School is located in Tasimauri, that part of of Guadalcanal commonly known as the Weather Coast. It is a part of the island that is relatively difficult to get to because there are no roads, the airstrip has been closed for many years, and the weather is unpredictable.

But, the Weather Coast is beautiful in its own rugged ways. Avuavu School could be a great place of learning precisely because of its isolation.

Students are also involved in preparing food. Here, students peel cassava for dinner.

One of the challenges of managing a boarding school like Avuavu is ensuring that students have sufficient and quality food. This is not easy because of the limited grants received from the Solomon Islands Government and the limited time that staff and students could spend making food gardens. For Avuavu, the challenges are exacerbated by isolation, as well as expensive and unreliable transportation.

Students therefore have to work to produce food to supplement what has been provided by the Solomon Islands Government. Here, students clear the forests to plant sweet potatoes, cassava, cabbages, etc. Even with this, it is still difficult to provide healthy diet for students.

The school library is the newest building. In 2013 many people in Australia, New Zealand and Hawai'i donated and shipped over 100 boxes of books to the school. Thank you for their generosity. The school continues with its work to improve the library.

The school's dining hall and kitchen need a total make over in order to provide for a healthy environment for students. The dining hall is not only a space to eat, but also for these young people to interact and socialize. These are important to their intellectual and social development.
In this picture students had lunch with rice and noodles on July 30th 2015. This is not a healthy diet. As you can see, the dining tables and building needs repair.

Avuavu Secondary School is dedicated to improving teaching & learning for the next generation of Solomon Islanders. But, in order to do so, it needs to improve infrastructure such as buildings, water supply systems, electricity, etc. There is also a need to have better school supplies, teaching aid, laboratories, etc. Students also need to have healthy and sufficient food. The school is unable to do this alone and grants from the government are insufficient. We have young people from all over Solomon Islands who are enthusiastic to learn and teachers dedicated to helping them learn.

The school's kitchen is basic and old. These are wood fire stove pots are what is used to cook food for 500 students that board at Avuavu Secondary School. They restrict the school's ability to cook healthy recipes for the students. The entire kitchen and dining hall need renovation and a total makeover.

Avuavu Secondary School has access to the internet, thanks to what was initially a UNDP-funded project called the People First Network. The school wants to use the internet to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning. Unfortunately, there is only one computer working. There are 500 students. Even if the use of this one computer is restricted to Forms 5 and 6, it would still be insufficient. Students could therefore look and not have the opportunity to use the computer. This enormously hampers our ability to teach and learn via the internet, and to teach students basic computer skills.

This little old building at the middle of the school is the school's Administration Building. It is old and in need of renovation and perhaps a new building. This would provide a bigger space and a healthy environment to work. It will lift the morale of the staff and students who come to see the staff.

Most of the infrastructure - buildings, water supply, etc. - at the Avuavu School were built by the Catholic Church in the late 1950s/early 1960s for what was then the St. Michael's Catholic Primary School. These infrastructure are therefore old and in need for renovation. In the 1980s, the school transitioned to the secondary school and the Solomon Islands Government took over of the management of the school. Since then, most of the infrastructure was never renovated and only a few new buildings were build. The school therefore needs to renovate the building to ensure the safety of students and staff and a good environment for teaching and learning.