After the school was gutted by a fire on 1 October 2000, the 1060 students, and teachers continued classes in the ruins of the school, and in tents before moving a year later to a temporary school built at Old Vaiola, with the assistance of the New Zealand, Australian and French governments.

A Tonga High School Reconstruction Project started in October 2003, with 52 classrooms being constructed under $8.25 million funding from the People's Republic of China. Construction work is carried out by a Chinese company, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.

Ma Zongyao, the Project Manager for CCECC, said on October 12, a year to the date after the reconstruction work, that construction was on schedule and that all the structural work of the two story complex had been completed. They were now working on the decoration of the interior and exterior of the building, and 24 engineers and technical personnel would soon join the 86 Chinese skilled workers at the site to complete the building complex.

Leveni Aho, from the Tonga Ministry of Works, said that Phase I of the Tonga High School Reconstruction Project would be completed next March. He said that the classrooms were the priority for the students to return to their school, and that was all the $8.25 million could do. He said that phase II would begin once government secured some funds for the construction of a gym, tennis court, a hall for performing arts and accommodation for teachers.

To mark the year of construction, Ma Zongyao took the Minister of Education, Hon. Paula Bloomfield, the Chinese Ambassador to Tonga HE Mr Gao Shanhai, and the media, on a tour of the site on October 12. The complex includes 34 standard classrooms and 18 special classrooms for science laboratory and industrial arts.

Mr Gao Shanhai commented on the Chinese development assistance to Tonga, "As you know, China is still a developing country with a huge population. There are about 40 million people living under the poverty standard level, and a lot of children deprived of education as a result of their family's economic condition, so the Chinese government understands completely the aspirations of the developing country to develop its economy and education, and does its best to assist them, including Tonga."