Okwala Primary School, an interior school in the middle of Malaita, is a living testimony of how human ambition can be rightly driven to fruition. The first generation to be educated trekked mountainous bush tracts to access the closest school to acquire classroom-given knowledge which back then was taken as a heaven-sent opportunity.
The age of school then wasn’t an issue and many, mostly boys, flocked the schools to take up the opportunity at an age of a modern-day secondary school dude. Girls then were rarely given a chance to join the excitement as the distance of schools on many occasions only allowed for the boys as they’d leave home to stay at the villages where the schools were located.
That trend was more or less forced to remain unchanged not until the need was locally realized for a school to be built. That was in the mid 1980s. In 1987, the World Bank realized the same need and provided materials for a more permanent building to be built, but it took a hard earned 5 years before the materials got to the site of construction as they had to be manually shouldered over the stiff mountains by the local villagers.The contruction, which was done by the Housing Authority of Honiara, then commenced tiringly but its fruits could somehow be seen with a more close to equality in gender education wise.
The building has however, outlived its intended purposes, with run down corridors, falling walls, and limited space for both students and staff living a not so conducive environment for the children to be taught.
But that’s not going to be the case anymore when a locally driven project, which is a new building, goes up as a completed complex in a few months time.
With government grants and a little backing by the community members, a two storey complex is humbly finding its way up off the grounds thanks to a dedicated locally assigned group of carpenters who under the direction of the school committee, representing the communities around Okwala, and an ambitious school head master Mr. Albert Maesulia, are working to meet the dead lines.
The community has, since day one, been quite active in fetching building materials from the head road to the school which is situated about 10km from a truck-accessed road.
“We are doing everything in our means to build the best ever facility in the area for our children,” said Daniel Iroasi, the foreman of the group of carpenters as he reiterates the need to join hands as a community to see the success of the project.
For the about –to-retire 54 year head master, it’s a project that he’d like to say goodbye to his dedicated years of teaching with. “Being one of the pioneer teachers of this school, I felt that I’ve travelled so much from my home that I didn’t have anything to contribute to my community and I just want to settle down with the task of coordinating everything as my way of giving back to the community,” said Mr. Maesulia who had to leave his work as a fishery officer in the mid 1980s to be trained as a school teacher to head the just-opened primary school at his village.
Reports reaching “A Fierce Reality” state that currently two groups have been mandated with the task of finishing the project and work is expected to finish in June.
With its completion Okwala should expect some more empowering as it is expected that the commitment by the community will encourage its inhabitants to be more serious about their children’s education. “Involving everyone in the project will perhaps change people’s idea of education,” said a local villager who believes that"people will now send their children to school to pay off their sweats."
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