School Improvement Project Opens at Mizpah Adventist High School

Mizpah Adventist High School in Vava’u celebrated the opening of a school improvement project valued at TOP$300,000, consisting of several teaching and learning development initiatives, on Thursday, 2 March 2023. Honorable Hu’akavameiliku, the Prime Minister of Tonga, inaugurated the event. The project is a significant milestone for the school towards promoting quality Adventist education in Tonga, which is aligned with national educational goals and promotes learning that is distinctively Adventist.

L-R: Mele (PM’s office), Melaia ‘Otuhouma (Computer Teacher), Paula Ma’u (PM’s Office), Dr Elisapesi Manson (Education Consultant, SDA), Pr Fanueli Mataele (President, Tonga Mission SDA), Hon. Hu’akavameiliku (Prime Minister), ‘Etuini Mo’unga (President, Beulah Ex-Students USA), Lui ‘Aho (President, Beulah Ex-Students Tonga), Fatongia Hopoate (Education Director, SDA). 

Owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Mizpah Adventist High School has been providing quality Adventist education to the people of Vava’u for over a century. The school is required to use the Quality Adventist School Framework (QASF), which provides all Adventist schools in Tonga and the Pacific with a robust structure for raising quality, achieving excellence, and delivering better outcomes for students and their families.

A needs assessment was conducted at Mizpah Adventist High School to align teaching and learning developments with the QASF. Key priority areas identified in this assessment strongly highlighted computing and ICT as the highest priority area, followed by other teaching and learning resources, such as the need for an instructional computer laboratory with Internet and printing services, science laboratory, ICT facilities for teachers, up-to-date school library, and extending the existing school curriculum to offer senior studies in Form 6 & 7.

Over the last several decades, Mizpah Adventist High School has been offering secondary schooling up to Form 5. The school has only met the minimum requirements to offer Form 6 in accordance with the Ministry of Education & Training’s accreditation process in the last few weeks. Scarce resources and limited funding provided opportunities for the project team to develop cost-effective models to ensure quality learning that is not only sustainable within the Tongan school context but also achievable.

Expanding the existing school curriculum to Form 6 was timely in order to provide a viable exit from secondary schooling that enhances preparedness for tertiary learning, strengthens readiness to join the workforce, and acquires skill competency in the global job market. Another stronger reason for extending the school existing curriculum to senior levels was to further enhance content knowledge and pedagogy for teachers in specialized subjects.

Since July 2021, Mizpah Adventist High School collaboratively raised funds with church members, parents and guardians, ex-students, and friends in Tonga and overseas, under the leadership of the project manager, Dr Elisapesi Manson, to complete several teaching and learning initiatives. These initiatives include a new core network infrastructure of the school Local Area Network (LAN), a new computer laboratory, a new science laboratory, a new school e-library, new staff and admin ICT facilities, renovated Form 6 classroom, groundbreaking of a new Form 6 classroom, and a new Form 6 program started in the current new academic year of 2023.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church acknowledged its continuing partnership with the Government of Tonga in the education of the people of Tonga in Vava’u. The government of Tonga, through the Ministry of Education & Training and the Ministry of Finance, supported the success of this project and bore the huge costs in duty and consumption tax for all the donated project materials shipped directly from suppliers in Australia. Another significant contribution by the Government of Tonga to this project is the provision of free Internet service to Mizpah Adventist High School through Starlink.

Mizpah Adventist High School expressed its gratitude to the people of Vava’u, church members, parents and guardians, ex-students, and friends of Mizpah in Tonga and overseas for their sacrificial commitment to the learning and faith journey of their children.