|
Lelean Memorial School is one of the largest co-ed schools in Fiji. It was established in 1943 and is run by the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. It is co-located at the Davuilevu Methodist Compound with the (Davuilevu Theological College ) and the Young People's Department, which runs training for Methodist catechists. Overlooking Fiji's largest river, the Rewa, the school gate faces the Rewa Bridge that was funded by the European Union and opened in 2006. Directly across the river is the village of Nausori and the old sugar town of the same name. The school roll for 2014 is 1600. Lelean Memorial School caters for students in the Tailevu, Naitasiri and Rewa provinces but it also accepts those who apply from other parts of Fiji. ==History== In late 1942, the Pacific Campaign of World War II was at its peak and the Colonial Authority was issued a command that all urban schools should close and surrender their compounds for use as military camps for forces fighting the Japanese threat. At that time, William Ewart Donnelly, a missionary teacher from New Zealand, was principal of Toorak Boys’ School or the Suva Methodist Boys' School — renamed the Suva Methodist Primary School in the 1970s or 1980s. Donnelly served as a teacher and General Secretary of the Students’ Christian Movement in the early 1930s and early 1940s and remained principal of Lelean from 1943 to 1945, when he returned to New Zealand. Other overseas teachers immediately left Fiji to await the end of the war elsewhere. But Donnelly, the determined missionary principal, sent a circular to all members of the senior classes of Classes Six, Seven, and Eight of Toorak Boys School, inviting volunteers to accompany him to continue their education. After consultation with the heads of the Methodist Church, he received permission to use the Principal’s residence at the Davuilevu Technical School, in Nausori. As a result, he and 50 volunteers from Toorak Boys School, met at the Principal’s residence 3 March 1943. Their first classrooms were the two master bedrooms with the long verandah on the east side of the structure serving as the library. There were only two classes and the only teacher in addition to Donnelly was Semesa Sikivou. During the 1943 Methodist Church Annual Conference, Donnelly received permission to expand his school along the same ridge and as a result, the boys themselves, with his guidance, built three large bures, where the teachers staff quarters presently stand. The conference also directed him to name the new facility Lelean Memorial School in memory of the Reverend Charles Oswald Lelean, an Australian missionary who served in Fiji for 36 years. For 20 of those years, 1914 to 1934, Rev. Lelean held the position of Senior Superintendent of the Davuilevu Mission and principal of the Methodist Theological College. Under Donnelly’s guidance, the Lelean school created its motto, “Seek wisdom and spiritual understanding”. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lelean Memorial School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|