THE HONOURABLE MINISTER FOR YOUTH AND SPORTS
LAISENIA TUITUBOU

• Board Members of the Chinese Education Society
• The Head Teacher Yat Sen Primary School
• The respective school committee and management
• Teachers
• Parents and guardians
• Students
• Invited Guests
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Ni hao, Bula Vinaka, Namaste, Salaam aleikum and a very Good Morning to you all.

Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, I am indeed honoured to be a part of your prize giving ceremony this morning.

This is an opportunity for us all to congratulate the prize winners and all those who have excelled this year.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Yat Sen Schools are well recognised in our country and undoubtedly your school is one of the preferred schools on every parent’s list in the Central Division.

You continue to excel and set benchmarks in educational and extracurricular activities. With a very humble beginning in having a total of 17 students during your founding days, Yat Sen now is proudly the home of over 1,000 students. And that does not even begin to take into account your extensive alumni.

That in itself is a tremendous achievement and I applaud you for that. You have continued to introduce innovative teaching ideas to your students as well as fun filled extracurricular activities that match international standards.

When we talk about education there are two ideas connected to it – education and assessment. However, when I meet parents they often express the view point that schools should prioritize a ‘well rounded’ education.

By well-rounded I mean an all-inclusive approach where there is education and assessment, sports, music, creative arts and other learning aids embedded in the school curriculum.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Yat Sen however, has been able to reflect and address all these aspects in your school curriculum and thus you stand out as a true example to other schools.

Your school has also ventured into language based teaching with Chinese being mandatory for all students.

I see this as a very unique opportunity being provided to our young students to learn Chinese and exchanging cultural knowledge and experiences. This bodes well for celebrating our diversity in Fiji.

I thank the Chinese Education Society that have made countless contributions to the educational advancement of these young children and for giving Fiji vibrant future leaders.

Dear students, when I look at you all today it reminds me of my primary school days. This is one of the many enjoyable phases in life where you get to make many good friends, celebrate each other’s success, comfort each other in sorrow or provide kindness and support to each other when in need. Developing friendships!

I have much confidence that the young students leaving Yat Sen Primary School will surely make a positive difference to our society, country and on the international stage.

Ladies and Gentlemen, although we all know that taking part is a key element in team sports, school events and life in general, winning is what makes us push ourselves and achieve our full potential.

The onus is on all the prize recipients that you must treat this as a starting point in your life and aspire to scale greater heights in the near future.

A famous Chinese philosopher, Confucius said:

“Education breeds confidence.
“Confidence breeds hope.
“Hope breeds peace”.

Ladies and Gentlemen all students have the right to be educated. As teachers, parents, elders and as government agencies, we should make every effort to ensure our children have access to education.

After all, we want to provide the next generations with education, confidence, hope and peace.

We want Fijians to shine on the international stage as our Honorable Prime Minister has done over the past 3 weeks in Germany. We want all Fijians to cultivate peace at home and overseas.

Success comes from peace. Development comes from success. Our nation will grow with this mixture of success, peace and development.

We need all Fijians to find our place in society where we can contribute our talent and continue to punch above our weight internationally.

With those words Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish all the students the very best in your future endeavours.

Xiexie, Vinaka, Dhanyaabad, Shokran and thank you all.