A community awareness program to ensure that children go to school has started off in the district of Ra after reports surfaced of some faith-based groups refusing to send their children to school.

Education officers in Rakiraki are part of Operation Tabutabuvuli.

Tabutabuvuli literally means a "habitual non-attendance of school" and Education Minister Filipe Bole said this is a pressing issue in Ra.

Bole said the Education officers are preaching the good news about education and to dispel all myths and beliefs that deter students from attending school.

The team is led by the Principal Education Officer Rakiraki Viliame Dranivesi and they have already visited the villages of Vatukacevaceva, Malake, Drauniivi and Veidrala.

It has been revealed that some of the faith-based groups are telling members not to send their children to school based on their religious convictions.

Operation Tabutabuvuli targets children aged between 6 to 16 years, who are supposed to be at school but are wandering around their villages.

Bole said the move by the Ministry's Ra office is encouraging as the whole nation needs to back this exercise to ensure all children who are supposed to be at school are at school, not in the village, plantation or wandering in towns and cities.


Story by: Vijay Narayan