GVIs First Term at Nasomolevu School

Yasawa Hub Achievement Report

August 2014
Education Enrichment
Through the implementation of a new support program at Nasomolevu Catholic School, an
understaffed primary school on the island of Matacawalevu in the Yasawa Island Group GVI has
focused on improving students literacy and numeracy in preparation for national Literacy and
Numeracy Assessment tests.

About the school

As of 2014, Nasomolevu Catholic Schools teaching staff dropped to just four teachers for eight
classes. Each teacher is now responsible for teaching two classes and age groups. The syllabi
for their two classes are not combined and so the teachers simultaneously teach two lessons.
This doubles the teachers workloads and reduces the amount of time children have with their
teachers, which has had a negative impact on student performance.
Nasomolevu School and Global Vision International (GVI) have worked together in the past
when the GVI community team helped to make various infrastructure improvements at the
school. The GVI education team also placed an education intern at the school for three
months. Because of their situation and previous work with us, Nasomolevu contacted GVI in
February 2014 in request for assistance.

Implementing the Program

In the school committees annual plan and three year strategy, they had identified a goal of
increasing Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (LANA) scores by twenty percent. LANA is a
national test for students in years four, six and eight. However, as the teachers are already
teaching two classes they have little time to commit to extra work with these students.
It was decided that GVI volunteers
would attend the school one day a
week and create extra lessons,
workshops and individual work to
reinforce the literacy and
numeracy skills they were to be
tested on in the target group.
Working in smaller groups allowed
the students to ask more questions
and receive extra practice.
The resources created include
worksheets, games and activities.
By building up the resources and
keeping them at the school we
allow the children to use them for
extra practice when GVI is off-site
GVI Fiji Yasawas 2014 Achievement Report

Fig.1.This board game, made from up-cylced

materials, is designed to increase vocabulary.

Library Improvements

(see fig.1).

The library facilities at the school had been unused for

so long that the books and the room was covered in rat
and lizard excrement, some of the books were ruined
due to mold and there were so many books that the
useful ones were lost amongst the out of date/damaged
ones.
Fig.2.

The GVI team worked to remove hazardous material

(fig.2.), clean the room and books that remained and
lay new flooring (fig.3.). Through the classification of
sections the books were made more accessible to the
students and teachers. The students and teachers were
involved throughout the refurbishment process in order
to establish a sense of ownership.
The completion of the work was celebrated with a tea
attended by teachers, students and GVI staff and
volunteers (fig.4.).

Fig.3.

To encourage the use of the library, GVI conducted

workshops with the older students on how to find and
select books, locate information and relate findings to
their studies (fig.5.).
The younger students have enjoyed story time and
individual reading sessions in the library (fig.6.).

Fig.4.

Next Steps
The Education project will continue to work with years
4, 6 and 8 in line with the LANA criteria until the results
from the exams are determined. At which point, the
results will be analyzed and those students who need
extra support will be selected to work with volunteers.

Fig.5.

Preparation for next years LANA exams will be

informed by the new games teaching methods
introduced by GVI volunteers for classes 3, 5 and 7.
Use of the newly refurbished library will be
incorporated into daily lesson plans to ensure that
students learn how to research information and
comprehend and analyze text.

Fig.6.

For more information on GVIs projects in Fiji please

visit www.gvi.co.uk
For more information on our global impact visit
www.gviworld.com

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GVI Fiji Yasawas 2014 Achievement Report

To make a donation to our community projects in Fiji please visit www.gvi.org for more details.

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GVI Fiji Yasawas 2014 Achievement Report