Dr Sione Vikilani a Deputy Clerk and Education Officer of the Legislative Assembly at Hillard Memorial School. Nuku'alofa 14 March 2013.

A parliamentary education and outreach team is on a mission to inform and equip teachers and students in Tonga's Secondary Schools with better knowledge of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.

Led by Dr Sione Vikilani a Deputy Clerk and Education Officer of the Legislative Assembly, the team has developed a new Parliamentary Handbook for teachers and are distributing it to schools. 

The team visited Hillard Memorial School of the Seventh Day Adventist at Pahu, Nuku'alofa today.

Dr Vikilani said they had visited 39 schools in Vava'u, Ha'apai and 'Eua during the awareness program which began in Tongatapu.

He said the program was in response to new topics introduced to Form 1-2 curriculum by the Ministry of Education, 'Tongan Society and Culture', which includes the structure and function of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.

"Since the new curriculum was introduced, the Legislative Office has been overwhelmed with students inquiries about the work of the Legislative Assembly. We took it upon ourselves to go out and gather feedback when the curriculum was on trial in 2011 and we found out that most students knew very little about the Legislative Assembly of Tonga," he said.

This led to the production of the new Parliamentary Handbook for teachers which contains information on the structure, function and members of the Legislative Assembly.

Siaosi Vete an Executive Officer of the Legislative Assembly said it was important for students to know about parliament as it is one of the important institutions in the Tongan system of government.

Awareness

At Hillard Memorial School the students who listened and answered questions from the team, ]were praised as the best school so far after they enthusiastically got the answers right on the names of the  Members of Parliament, including the Speaker. Some even knew the name of the new Chairman of the Whole House Committee, Sunia Fili ,who was selected in last week's special sitting of the Legislative Assembly in Nuku'alofa.

Hillard Principal Katalina Matui said they are very appreciative of the awareness visit. "This is a new lesson that we are teaching our students and the outreach program and handbook will help us to be better equipped in teaching on the topic of parliament. One teacher said she is learning about parliament alongside her students."

The parliamentary team are expected to visit a few other selected secondary schools in Tongatapu, which were not covered at the start of the outreach program in February.