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Social Studies Level 3 Culture
and Heritage:
TONGA NEW ZEALAND 1950
THE PRACTICES OF CULTURAL
GROUPS VARY BUT REFLECT SIMILAR PURPOSES
Expanding secondary education
options
DecisionMaker
sound:
Click
here to listen to this oral archive
Andrew Afeaki says
By 1947 the then Crown Prince, now King Taufa’ahau Tupou 1V, had
set up what is now Tonga High School. It was intended to teach New Zealand
level curriculum in English to prepare bright young Tongan boys and girls
to sit school certificate in English and eventually go to university in
New Zealand. That had started in 1947. There was great interest in that
in Tonga and the promise of education and eventually scholarships. The
fact is because my family was Roman Catholics and they were fanatical
about Catholic schooling and that sort of thing, the Tonga High School
option and those opportunities were not available to me. We were not even
allowed to sit the exam, so I ended up in 1950 sitting the entrance exam
to ‘Api Fo’ou Catholic College. I was about on average, five
years younger than my contemporaries at that boarding school. But I only
lasted one year at ‘Api Fo’ou. I turned ten in October. My
father was not happy about me being deprived of Tonga High School so he
arranged for me to go to Marist school in Fiji in 1952. That was really
the only option we had a Catholics.
Next,
Expanding
education options
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Source: Anthony Haas
personal collection.Still photo by Ken George to accompany the 1970s migrant
education film, Living in New Zealand, co-produced by Ian Johnstone and
Anthony Haas
'Okasi Talia'uli migrated
from Tonga to Wellington to give his children access to New Zealand educational
opportunities.
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