Motufoua Secondary School

Motufoua is the country's senior secondary school, on the southern side of Vaitupu, and arguably the single most important institution in modern Tuvalu after the government itself. It is a boarding school: students come from every island in the country, live on campus for years, and form the social network that runs the country for the rest of their lives.

The grounds are modest — a cluster of concrete classrooms, dormitories, a dining hall, sports pitches, and the school's own taro and pulaka gardens — but the place has weight. A memorial near the main building marks the 2000 dormitory fire that killed nineteen students and a teacher. Visitors are welcome if school is not in session; if it is, ask at the office before walking around.

things to do sight history
A story
Motufoua was originally established as a London Missionary Society school in 1905, then absorbed into the colonial education system and finally taken over by the Tuvaluan government at independence. For most of the post-independence period it was the only senior secondary school in the country, which is why nearly every Tuvaluan over thirty in a position of national responsibility — government ministers, teachers, doctors, lawyers — went through it.