...A successful story of a young teacher who is posted to Cikobia to teach and how courageous Mr Ram to meet these challenges..... By LOSALINI RASOQOSOQO Reporting from Lau Being away from his family was hard enough to handle for first-year school teacher Vinal Kaushik Ram. Despite being posted to an island where the luxuries of transportation, communication, tap water, etc is scarce; Mr Ram is looking forward to the challenges. As a graduate from the Lautoka Teachers College, Cikobia Island will be Mr Ram’s home for the next 12 months or so. Surrounded by the ocean, people on Cikobia get to enjoy the peaceful, quite life but they can only access basic services like medication and the post office when they get to Lomaloma Village in Vanuabalavu. To do that the islanders will have to spend at least $100 to travel by punt, yet 20-year-old teacher said that was not a problem. “I wanted to be a teacher and to become one, I must be ready to accept this kind of life,” he said. “I am not complaining even though life will be hard. I am here to teach and to give the children the best education they deserve.” A traditional itatau was presented by the Ministry of Education officials to the chief of Cikobia seeking his acceptance and blessings on Mr Ram. The first thing the chief asked the young teacher was if he knew how to dive. Cikobia’s fishing grounds is rich that the islanders tend to eat fish daily. They say Mr Ram will have no problem adjusting because the village youths will take him out fishing all the time. The former Vunimono High School student becomes the second teacher on the island who will teach 14 students. He will also go down in Fiji’s history books as the first Fijian of Indian descent to teach on the island. Saying goodbye to his family was hard. His grandmother was weeping loudly at the Government Wharf in Suva on Sunday. Mr Ram says he misses them a lot especially his parents, two brothers and his only sister, and his grandparents. However, he said it was time he gave something back to his parents. His father is a taxi driver and his mother stays at home. “My father is the one motivating me all the time and to become a teacher, I vow to do well to repay what they have done for me,” Mr Ram said. “Times are hard and it is my turn to look after the family.”
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 07:20:39 +0000
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