King George V School (Gilbert and Ellice Islands)

King George V School (KGV) was a government high school for boys in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), within the British colony Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Throughout its history it was in multiple locations in South Tarawa and Abemama. It served as a boarding school,^[1] and trained people to be government workers and teachers.^[2]

John Garrett, author of Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania Since World War II, wrote that many of its alumni "shaped a nucleus which assisted" the independence of what became Kiribati.^[2]

History

It was originally located in Bairiki, South Tarawa, where it opened in 1922.^[3] For much of its history its headmaster was a New Zealander, F. G. L. Holland.^[2] At some point it moved to Abemama.^[3]

It moved to Bikenibeu, South Tarawa in 1953. From 1953 until 1975 students from the Ellice Islands could sit the selection tests for admission to the King George V School (and the Elaine Bernacchi Secondary School).^[4] In 1974, the Ellice Islanders voted for separate British dependency status as Tuvalu, which ended the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. The following year the Tuvaluan students were transferred to Motufoua Secondary School on Vaitupu.^[4]

In 1965 KGV merged with the girls' school Elaine Bernacchi School (EBS) to form the coeducational King George V and Elaine Bernacchi School.^[1]

Enrollment

It had 150 students in 1955.^[1]

Notable staff

• Taomati Iuta - Teacher, later Kiribati Speaker of Parliament^[5]

1°20′N 173°00′E

References

1. Talu, Alaima. "Towards Quality in Education" (Chapter 21, in Part IV: Social Issues). In: Van Trease, Howard (editor). Atoll Politics: The Republic of Kiribati. University of Canterbury MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies and University of the South Pacific Institute of Pacific Studies, 1993. ISBN 095833000X, 9780958330008. p. 242
2. Garrett, John. Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania Since World War II. University of the South Pacific Institute of Pacific Studies (in association with the World Council of Churches), 1997. p. 11. ISBN 9820201217, 9789820201217.
3. Talu, Alaima. "Towards Quality in Education" (Chapter 21, in Part IV: Social Issues). In: Van Trease, Howard (editor). Atoll Politics: The Republic of Kiribati. University of Canterbury MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies and University of the South Pacific Institute of Pacific Studies, 1993. ISBN 095833000X, 9780958330008. p. 241
4. Enele Sapoaga (Hugh Laracy (ed.)) (1976). Tuvalu, A History, Chapter 19 – Post-War Development. University of the South Pacific/Government of Tuvalu.
5. "Hon. Taomati Iuta - Speaker of Parliament (2007-2011) Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine." Parliament (Kiribati). Retrieved on 10 July 2018.