Tongan Language School
Rosehill Tongan Community Centre
30 Scattergood Place, Spence, ACT 2615
Saturdays, 11:00am – 2:00pm during school terms
Nil
The Tongan Language School was established in 1995 with 20 students. Classes were held at the Griffin Centre, Civic every Saturday during school terms. The first Principal of the school was Matelita Koloi and assisting her were other teachers ie, Mele Borman, Lavinia Hausia, Hema Aholelei and students from Tonga who were studying in the two universities in Canberra at the time.
In 2003 there were 73 students. In order to ensure that the students attend classes they are divided into four groups according to their religion i.e., Catholic, Uniting Civic, Uniting O’Connor and Maama Fo’ou. These groups meet together twice every school term at Rosehill Tongan Community Centre to share and assess their learning.
The language taught is Tongan which is one of the Polynesian languages such as Maori, Samoan, Hawaiian and others. The language is spoken by over 150,000 people.
The total population of Tonga is 100,000 and the rest are spread all over the world. Most Tongans who live outside Tonga are found in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
Tonga is located south east of Fiji, its nearest neighbor in the South Pacific.