A community primary school in the interior of Nadroga received $12,500 worth of computer equipment from the Tappoo Foundation to support its learning and teaching.
The donation will help teachers of Kavanagasau Sanatan Dharam School, a primary school almost 25km inland from Sigatoka town, improve curriculum delivery and strengthen the learning of its 77 students.
School head teacher Jitendra Kumar said, “We are very thankful to the Tappoo Foundation, the charitable arm of the Tappoo Group of Companies, for providing us with IT support which will help us provide our students with technical education; a must in present times.”
The school recently upgraded its computer room which had two computers before the Foundation’s donation of three high-end laptops, three Smart LED TVs, three LED monitors and a set of stereo speakers.
The donation was one of two initiatives that the Foundation undertook to celebrate the legacy of the late Tappoo Kanji, who founded the Tappoo company 82 years ago on August 23, 1941.
“This school means quite a bit to us because it was where our father was briefly enrolled in,” said Kanti Tappoo, head of the Tappoo Foundation and executive chairman of the Tappoo Group of Companies. The school’s first register shows that he was the third student enrolled when it opened in 1933.
Kanti, while speaking to the school community at the handover ceremony last month, said their father could only remain a student for a few months because he had to leave school, look for work and start earning his livelihood as his father could no longer afford to send him to school.
“Being deprived of education, our father was always keen to support education and this is why it is a tradition in our family to contribute to education as much as we can,” he said.
The foundation also donated $7,500 to support five tertiary students of Laselase Village in Sigatoka, close to where the late Tappoo Kanji first started his business handcrafting artifacts out of a tiny workshop way back in 1941.
Meanwhile, Kavanagasau Sanatan Dharam School achieved a 100 per cent pass rate in last year’s Fiji Eighth Year Examination.
Kanti Tappoo said this was an impressive result that reflected the diligence and commitment of the school’s head teacher, teachers, administrators and parents.
“We all know it is not easy to run a rural school like this, and so the school’s success today shows the extreme dedication, determination and commitment of its founders, head teachers, teachers, committee members, administrators, past and present, together with the support of the Kavanagasau community.”
Source: Press Release