BRITISH
FRIENDS OF VANUATU
VANUATU
EDUCATION CASE STUDY
(JANUARY
1999)
PREFACE
This
report, commissioned by the British Friends of Vanuatu, is based on
research carried out by Mr. Tony Williams of Williams Educational
Services, Chairman of the Bristol branch of the English Speaking Union and
a committee member of the British Friends of Vanuatu, who visited Vanuatu
between 6 July and 24 August 1998. The British Friends of Vanuatu
acknowledge with gratitude the help and support warmly afforded him by the
Prime Minister of Vanuatu, the Hon. Donald Kalpokas, by the Minister of
Education, the Hon. Joe Natuman, and by Ministry of Education officials,
teachers, members of diplomatic missions, and many others. The visit
coincided with, and overlapped, that of the World Bank mission, led by Mr.
David Klaus, which had been invited to advise the Vanuatu Government on
the preparation of an Education Master Plan. The preparation and
publication of this report has been made possible through the receipt of a
generous grant from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, for which we
are deeply grateful. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the
European Centre for Studies, Information and Education on Pacific Issues (ECSIEP).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive
Summary
Project Objectives
Historical Background
Basic Problems
Elimination of Poverty
Role of International Aid
Recommendations
Annex
Historical & Current Background of Vanuatu
Education before Independence
Developments in Education since Independence
Current Developments
Appendices
A Comprehensive Reform
programme
B The Education Master
Plan
C Rationalisation of
Schools
D Vanuatu Rural
Development Training Centre Association
E Education Statistics
F Acknowledgements
The Basic Problems.
Much
progress has been made in the development of a common system of education
in Vanuatu out of the two totally disparate British and French systems
inherited in 1980 from the condominium of the New Hebrides, but problems
remain. The overriding problem is that around two‑thirds of all
children completing the six‑year primary school course have to leave
school at about age 12, because there are no secondary school places
available. The government and people of Vanuatu believe that their country
cannot move forward unless the numbers of children receiving an adequate
secondary education is greatly increased. Subsidiary problems include
critical shortages of secondary school teachers, lack of resources and
funding for individual schools, inadequate support for teachers in the
field, some duplication of primary school provision arising from the
pre‑independence policies of the British and French administrations,
and inadequate arrangements for vocational training for those who drop out
of the educational system after completing primary school. (Pages
6‑7)
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The
Elimination of Poverty.
The
problems spring from a lack of funds to finance an adequate dual language
system in a small and poor country. The fact that the bulk of Vanuatu's
young people are deprived of educational opportunity is as much evidence
of poverty as say malnutrition and is a recipe for continuing poverty. The
Government of Vanuatu has selected a target of ten years of education for
all children by 2010, but the World Bank in a depressing recognition of
Vanuatu's poverty has recommended instead an alternative target of eight
years of primary education. The power of secondary education to change
things in Vanuatu is illustrated by the remarkable contribution to the
development of Vanuatu of those who attended the country's first secondary
school, established in 1966. (Page 8) TABLE
OF CONTENTS
The
Role of International Aid.
Vanuatu
was not a viable state when it became independent in 1980. During the
first decade of independence British manpower aid and other assistance was
of critical importance in establishing Vanuatu as a well administered
small country, making progress in developing its modest resources. In the
early 1990s the taps were turned off, British staff were withdrawn or not
replaced, scholarship and training programmes were abandoned, and the
British aid programme was run down to its present minimal size.
Fortunately France, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union have
maintained through the 1990s valuable and effective education sector aid
programmes. As to the future Vanuatu will need continuing education sector
aid on a major scale over the next decade. The needs are so widespread and
varied that they deserve the attention both of major donors and of NGOs
and small-scale donors. (Pages 9‑10) TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Recommendations.
The
report recommends a substantial increase in British education sector aid
and a continuation of European Union education sector aid at least at its
present scale during the next decade. The 14 recommendations include many
suggestions for smaller scale assistance of a type appropriate for
adoption by British and European NGOs. The final recommendation reinforces
a World Bank suggestion for the establishment in Port Vila of an education
sector Donor Coordinating Committee. (Pages 11‑13) TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Annex
This
contains an account of the development of education in the New Hebrides up
to 1980, a summary of what has been achieved since independence, and a
note on four important current developments the Comprehensive Reform
Programme, the Education Master Plan on which the World Bank have advised
Vanuatu, a current European Union Education Sector Project and a current
Australian teacher education project. (Pages 14‑20) TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Project
Objectives
The
overriding objectives of the project are to produce a report, which will:
Demonstrate
to European aid donors, including both the British Government and (in the
context of the Post-Lomé Negotiations) the European Union, that
current education provision in Vanuatu falls short of the country's needs,
especially at secondary level and that the deficiencies can only be
remedied by continued external
assistance for a substantial period. The most telling evidence of this
is that two‑thirds of Vanuatu children completing primary school
cannot go on to any form of secondary education because of the lack of
secondary school places.
Given
the international emphasis that aid should be directed primarily to the
alleviation of poverty the report should make the point that Vanuatu
children are deprived of educational opportunities that should be
available to them because of the current inability of the Vanuatu
Government to fund from its own resources an adequate school system, that
this deprivation is as much evidence of poverty as low income or bad
housing, and that Vanuatu cannot hope to emerge from poverty and aid
dependence unless there is adequate educational provision.
Illustrate
the types of educational assistance which are likely to be needed over a
period covered by the Vanuatu Educational Master Plan, not only projects
of a type which can only be funded by major aid donors but more
particularly important minor projects such as can be funded by Non
Government Organisations (NGOs) and other small scale donors
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The
Historical Background.
The story of Vanuatu education
is complicated, as is everything else in that country, by the record of
the Anglo‑French Condominium of the New Hebrides, which was ended
but not resolved by Independence in July 1980. The history of that
difficult legacy is briefly set out in the Annex to this paper. TABLE
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THE BASIC PROBLEMS
While
enormous progress has been made in the eighteen years of independence in
the development of a common system of education out of two very different
ones, much remains to be done.
The
overriding problem is that in recent years around two‑thirds of all
children completing the six‑year primary school course are forced to
leave school at about age 12, inadequately equipped to earn a living in
either the rural or the urban economy, because there are no secondary
school places available for them. In 1998 the percentage of
French‑educated children entering secondary school, 59%, was
significantly higher, but for the more numerous English‑educated
children the percentage remained at 34%. It is not clear whether the
discrepancy is the result of a fall in the proportion of children
attending French‑medium primary schools or whether it results from a
disproportionate increase in the number of places available at
French‑medium secondary schools. A considerable number of new
secondary schools are being established (in some cases through the
addition of secondary departments to existing primary schools), but many
of the new places created are needed to cope with a rapidly rising
population rather than to provide an expansion of opportunity. The
government and people of Vanuatu believe that the country cannot hope to
move forward and escape from poverty, providing a better standard of
living for its people, unless the numbers of young ni‑Vanuatu
receiving an adequate secondary education is greatly increased
‑hence the goal of the Comprehensive Reform Programme.
Subsidiary
to this are a very wide range of difficulties and deficiencies. They
include:
Critical
shortages of secondary school teachers (in particular those competent to
teach the most senior forms). In part this results from the fact that
during the first decade or more of independence the limited numbers of
suitably educated university graduates were able to move into more
attractive and better paid jobs in the senior ranks of the public service
and in the private sector. Teaching tended to be a last resort. Only now,
with the contraction in the size of the public service as a result of the
CRP, may the situation be changing. A great improvement in teacher
training facilities for the increasing numbers of secondary schoolteachers
needed seems to be a high priority, particularly for anglophone teachers
who currently are only trained in Fiji where the courses may not
specifically address Vanuatu conditions and curricula (this problem is
being addressed in a new Australian project, VASTEP, due to start during
1999). Francophone teachers are being trained in Vila, thanks to a
continuing French aid project. Should the World Bank proposals be adopted,
a different teacher-training problem will presumably arise from the need
to retrain large numbers of primary school teachers to teach the first two
years of what was previously the Junior Secondary School curriculum.
Lack
of resources and funding for individual schools. There has been seriously
inadequate funding for school maintenance; the World Bank found many
school buildings in poor condition; substantial EU funds have been and
continue to be applied to the refurbishment of rural primary schools
(there has also been French aid in this field). There are also problems
over the supply of basic items of school use for both primary and
secondary schools. This is particularly noticeable in small primary
schools. There is very restricted funding even for the basics of exercise
books, pencils, chalk and so on, while items such as coloured pencils or
crayons, scissors, paints and so on have become very rare.
Lack
of support for primary teachers in the field. The allocation of three
primary advisors per province is not nearly enough. They cannot hope to
visit all probationary and temporary teachers and give the support they
need, let alone perform their other functions.
Lack
of a pool of good primary teachers who have had further education beyond
that of their two years initial training, who are available to take up
positions in teacher education, curriculum work and the advisory service.
There is little or no opportunity or support for primary teachers to
undertake further study. This leads to an inbred system, with few
interesting developments.
Inadequate
support from subject specialists for secondary teachers in the field. The
World Bank recommends that there should be ten pedagogical advisers
(rather than the current one) providing secondary teacher support and
supervision.
The
World Bank have recommended that a detailed school mapping exercise be
undertaken to establish precisely the needs for and desirable locations of
schools at all levels and that there should be an amalgamation of primary
schools in some cases. This is now being undertaken by the European Union
and reflects the Bank mission's finding that some existing primary schools
lack facilities while at others there is a waste of resources due to
excess numbers of classrooms, small class sizes and the unplanned
development of schools. To some extent the problems must spring from the
way in which the primary school network developed with rival English and
French medium schools being established in single villages.
Disappointingly the World Bank aide-memoire contains no reference to or
assessment of the success of the small number of dual language schools
established in recent years, though on the face of it such schools ought
to be an effective way of rationalizing the development of schools and of
using limited resources to the best advantage. For reasons which are
unclear none of the new secondary schools to be developed under the
current EU project are planned to be dual language. An account of personal
experiences during brief visits to three islands illustrates the extent of
the problem (see Appendix C).
The
question of how to provide some kind of vocational training for those who
drop out of the education system after completing primary school has bean
a continuing problem since the earliest years of independence. It will
remain a problem even if the average age of school leaver is raised from
12 to 14. Efforts have been made to develop a coordinated network of Rural
Training Centres in the islands since the early 1980s. In the early years
at least these came and went, tending to be church sponsored, dependent
for their viability and success on the dedication of an overseas
volunteer. In 1993 the Vanuatu Rural Development Training Centre
Association was established with support from the UK Foundation for the
South Pacific (UKFSP) as an umbrella organisation to encourage and support
the development of community-based Rural Training Centres and is currently
receiving major support from DFID under a three-year programme (1996/99:
£483,000). The World Bank recommends the further strengthening of the
VRDTCA as the most effective way forward. There are currently 22 Training
Centres operating under VRDTCA, with enrolments in 1977 and 1978 of 675
and 376 trainees respectively (in 1997/98 2842 children dropped out of the
education system after Year 6). The figures suggest that much still
remains to be done. For a fuller account of VRDTCA see Appendix D.
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THE
ELIMINATION OF POVERTY
The
serious inadequacies of Vanuatu's education system spring from a lack of
funds to finance a dual language system, which has been forced on it by
its condominium inheritance, in a country where the population live in
small and often isolated communities in mountainous islands scattered over
a large area of the Pacific Ocean. To maintain and develop parallel
English and French medium schools in such geographical circumstances is
inevitably a very expensive business. The problems are aggravated by high
population growth. The consequence is a situation where the great bulk of
Vanuatu's young people are deprived of educational opportunity and are
currently obliged to leave school after six years of not very high quality
primary education in schools lacking many normal facilities. This is as
much evidence of poverty as malnutrition or indifferent housing or low
cash income and is a recipe for continuing poverty. The way out of this
poverty is surely a major and immediate effort to provide proper
educational opportunity for all within a system which ensures that
sufficient numbers receive a standard of quality secondary and tertiary
education which is adequate to equip the country's future civil service
managers, its business executives and its professionals (including its
teachers) to meet their responsibilities.
In
recognising the cardinal importance of creating a better educated
population the Vanuatu Government selected a target of ten years of
education for all children by 2010. It is a depressing recognition of the
poverty of the country that the World Bank mission has regarded this
target as financially not affordable and has recommended in its place not
a moving of the target year on to say 2020 but an alternative target of
eight years of primary education.
It
is relevant that the power of education to change things in Vanuatu is
dramatically illustrated by the consequences of establishing the British
Secondary School (now Malapoa College) in the mid 1960s. Although those
who attended the school were to begin with small in numbers (182 had
entered the school by 1971, a figure which had risen to nearly 400 by
1975), they received from dedicated British staff a quality education and
as a result the distinguished contribution which they and their successors
have made and continue to make to the development of Vanuatu in a wide
variety of fields has been most impressive.
It
is necessary to make these points in view of the emphasis that the
international community places on the elimination of poverty as the prime
purpose of development aid. This is particularly emphasised in the British
Government's White Paper 'Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the
21st Century'. While the broad international objective is to achieve
universal primary education by 2015, the priorities for Vanuatu in the
drive to eliminate poverty relate to post primary education. It is
encouraging that the White Paper promises a new approach to education
sector aid which will focus on the fundamentals of an effective education
system including enabling children to benefit from the full cycle of
education and the removal of all barriers to opportunity and achievement.
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THE
ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL AID
Vanuatu
was not a viable state when it became independent in 1980. It was
dependent on substantial budgetary aid from Britain and France, it could
not fund from its own resources even the smallest development project, and
it had inherited no established structure of government and no indigenous
civil service. There were hardly any local graduates and professionals,
and in many fields trained technicians were thin on the ground. Because of
its dual heritage Vanuatu faced problems that were unique among ex-British
colonial territories. During the first decade of independence British
manpower aid and other forms of assistance were of major importance in
establishing Vanuatu as a well-administered small country, enabling it to
dispense with budgetary aid, to train local staff to take over from
expatriates in government service, and to make some progress in developing
its very modest resources. In the education sector continuing support of
Malapoa College, the provision of scholarships to fund university
education in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and an extensive programme of
technical training in the UK were all-important and valuable. Sadly in the
early 1990s the taps were turned off (as elsewhere in the Pacific),
British staff were withdrawn or not replaced, scholarship training
programmes were abandoned, and the Pacific aid programme that had been at
a level of around £14m in 1991/92 was run down over a few years to its
present minimal size. Currently British educational aid is only supporting
projects in the informal sector, notably the VRDTCA and the influential
and effective community theatre group Wan Smol Bag (there has also been
part funding of research into the reported differences in the learning
achievements of English-medium and French-medium pupils). Happily the
current British High Commissioner has been most active in making admirable
and well publicised use of such small funds as are available to him, and
VSO volunteers play a valued role, but this hardly compensates for the cut
off in aid that has occurred.
It
has been fortunate for Vanuatu that during the 1990s France, Australia,
New Zealand and the European Union have all maintained valuable and
effective education sector aid programmes. French aid continues, as in the
past, to be very largely devoted to the support and development of the
French-medium education system, with significant numbers of French
nationals (including national service co-operants) teaching in schools, a
teacher training programme producing an annual supply of French-medium
secondary school teachers, an important programme of scholarships to the
new French university in New Caledonia, and a recent project for the
rehabilitation of French-medium primary schools. Opportunities for
anglophone students to obtain tertiary education, whether at the
University of the South Pacific or in Australia or New Zealand, depend
almost entirely on the scholarship programmes operated by Australia and
New Zealand (New Zealand programmes also include valuable funding for
pre-tertiary education). Australia has funded important school development
projects, including the construction of a large new dual language primary
school in Vila, work at other Vila primary schools, the development of
INTV (the French established francophone technical college in Vila) into a
bilingual national technical institute), and currently the major expansion
of Onesua and Montmartre secondary schools to allow Year 11 and Year 12
studies. Other current Australian projects are aimed at secondary school
teacher training and the much needed strengthening of the Vanuatu
Government's Scholarship Unit. The very important EU projects for the
rehabilitation of rural primary schools and for the development of new
Junior Secondary Schools have been referred to earlier.
Looking to the future it is apparent that Vanuatu will need continuing
education sector support on a major scale from donor countries and
agencies over the next decade. The precise forms, which this support
should take, will depend on the ultimate content of the Education Master
Plan, something which is not known at the time of writing. Whether the
Vanuatu Government chooses to develop the education system on the lines
advocated by the World Bank mission, or opts to go forward through an
expansion of the Junior Secondary School network, much assistance will be
needed. It is clear that teacher training is a priority area of need, both
the initial training of teachers for secondary schools, the retraining of
primary school teachers to teach at a more senior level, and in-service
training schemes to assist in career development and to provide the
special skills needed by head teachers, whether at primary or secondary
level. There are likely to be many ways in which expatriate teachers or
teacher-assistants can help, both volunteers and career teachers, with
mature volunteers being able to make an especially valuable contribution.
The needs are so wide-spread and varied that they deserve the attention
both of the major donors and agencies and of NGOs and small-scale donors.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Now that increased
resources are available to the Department for International Development,
we recommend that the British Government assist the Vanuatu
Government in the development of its educational system through a
substantial increase in the current level of aid. We believe that such
increased assistance would be entirely compatible with the objectives of
the DFID in eliminating poverty and in adopting a new approach to
education sector aid, which inter alia will enable pupils to benefit from
the full cycle of education.
2. We recommend
that the European Union should in the course of the Post-Lome Negotiations
recognise Vanuatu's continuing need for substantial education sector aid
during the first decade of the 21st century and should make provision,
under whatever arrangements succeed the Lome Conventions, for continuing
education sector assistance at at least present levels, building on what
has already been achieved and is currently in progress
3. While it would be
premature to determine the precise forms of new aid projects until the
content of the Education Master Plan has been finalised, we recommend
that major international aid donors should in any event accord priority
to:
a)
projects which will increase the availability of post-primary
education in order to meet so far as is possible the aspirations of the
Comprehensive Reform Programme;
b)
projects which will increase the supply and quality of teachers,
particularly at secondary level,
both
through initial training and through innovative forms of in-service
training.
4.) Many more teacher trainers
are going to be required, particularly if the World Bank team's
recommendations are accepted. We recommend that British and
European aid agencies should help to meet this need in the English medium
system by drawing on the resources and expertise of the Centre for British
Teachers (CFBT) and of the English Speaking Union's International Training
Scheme and in particular by making available recently retired College of
Education lecturers willing to go out to Vanuatu on two year contract
volunteer terms.
5. Many more teachers
are going to be required, particularly for the expanded post-primary
system. While the need for expatriate teachers may be greatest in the
short term, there is likely to be a continuing long term need to fill
shortages that may arise, for example for teachers to cover absences of
existing teachers on in-service training, whether in Vanuatu or overseas,
odor specialist teachers in the most senior forms. We recommend
that British and European aid agencies should help to meet these needs in
the English medium system by making available mature or recently retired
teachers on volunteer or local salary terms and also by making available
young University/Training College graduates on one year Gap Year terms.
6. We recommend
that Voluntary Service Overseas should increase the small number of
education sector volunteers it provides for Vanuatu, with an emphasis on
meeting secondary school needs.
7.
We recommend
that Gap Activity Projects Ltd should take over and expand the
scheme successfully pioneered by the Bristol branch of the English
Speaking Union, under which pre‑university gap year students are
sent to help in Vanuatu schools as teachers, helpers, library assistants,
extra‑curricula organisers, sports coaches, and assistants to boy
and girl housemasters. Since the pre‑university gap scheme leaves
schools short of a teacher for the third term of the school year, we
recommend that the expanded scheme should recruit recent graduates
interested in taking a gap year and willing to serve in Vanuatu for a full
school year.
8. We recommend
continuation of the joint Bristol ESU/British Friends of Vanuatu
scheme under which a ni‑Vanuatu school principal or head of a
training institution be invited to Britain for 4‑6 weeks to see time
for reflection.
9. We recommend
how a similar UK institution operates, to take back
best‑practice ideas for their institution, and to provide a
extension to other secondary schools of the scheme under which the British
Friends of Vanuatu, with support from the Bank Line and the British High
Commission in Port Vila, have organised book presentations to the
libraries of Vureas High School and Onesua High School. Consideration
should be given to inclusion of CD‑ROMs in presentations to schools
that are equipped with suitable computers.
10.
We recommend
continuation of the existing scheme under which the British
Friends of Vanuatu and the Cassandra Trust have funded scholarships for
needy students in the senior forms of Malapoa College and (in the case of
the Cassandra Trust) other institutions.
11.
We recommend
that British and European aid agencies should fund the provision
at selected secondary schools of computers with CD‑Rom and modem, so
that staff and pupils can have greater research access and to facilitate
the introduction of the technology education programme which has been
recommended by the World Bank mission.
12.
We recommend
that British and European aid agencies should continue to give
support to the Vanuatu Rural Development Training Centre Association and
to Rural Training Centres so that the latter become a viable option for
pupils not selected for secondary education. Funds are required for an
administrative centre, for the training of instructors, and for the
salaries of training centre managers so that the money earned through
student projects at particular centres can be ploughed back to provide for
expansion and purchase of more equipment.
13.
In so far as Aid Agencies are able to participate in the debate on
the recommendations of the World Bank mission, we recommend
that:
a)
serious concern be expressed at the proposal that children in
Preskul, Year 1 and Year 2 classes should be taught in local village
vernaculars by low‑paid Year 10 dropouts, who have received only
short term training in pedagogy and who have not qualified for standard
teacher training. Whether or not it proves difficult to recruit such
people for the very many vernaculars spoken in Vanuatu, it is widely held
that the earliest years of schooling are the most important in any child's
future development and that teaching at this level by properly trained and
experienced teachers is of the greatest importance.
b)
the Ministry of Education be strengthened and made more effective
and more in touch with the needs of teachers and principals, (staffed at
senior levels with a proportion of experienced teachers). We endorse the
recommendations of the World Bank mission that a new structure for the
Ministry is implemented as soon as possible, and that the salary structure
for teachers is improved.
c)
Provincial Education Officers be given more staff to act as
advisors and inspectors as well as being coordinators of the Provincial
Teachers' Centres, where teachers can get help, support and materials and
have one-day courses to discuss common problems.
14.
We recommend that British and European donor agencies
represented in Port Vila should pursue the suggestion put forward by the
World Bank mission that a Donor Coordinating Committee be established
under the chairmanship of the Minister of Education, should meet
regularly, and should inform donors of progress in the Education Master
Plan preparation. We further recommend that donor agencies not represented
in Port Vila and willing to contribute to education sector development
should arrange to be represented by an appropriate local diplomatic
mission and should receive copies of the minutes of meetings of the Donor
Coordinating Committee.
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ANNEX
Vanuatu,
previously known as the New Hebrides, is a Pacific island state, an
archipelago of some 60 inhabited islands, a dozen of which are of
significant size, spread in a Y-shape over a large area of the Pacific
Ocean. The islands lie to the north east of Sydney and to the west of
Fiji. There are two towns, Vila, the capital, on the island of Efate, and
Luganville on the island of Santo. Otherwise the indigenous Melanesian
population of about 170,000 live in small scattered villages in terrain
which is generally mountainous and densely forested. Population growth is
high. There are some 100 local languages or dialects, with bislama (the
local variety of pidgin) serving as an almost universal lingua franca. The
climate is tropical to sub tropical, with all islands vulnerable to damage
from destructive cyclones during three to four months of the year. The
islands are well served by an internal air service but road links within
islands are of poor quality (where they exist) and inter-island shipping
services are often unsatisfactory. This means that provision of government
services to the islands is inevitably an expensive business.
During
the second half of the 19th century missionaries ( Presbyterians, Anglican
and French Roman Catholics) and settlers, British/Australian and French,
began to arrive in the New Hebrides in increasing numbers. With no form of
administration in the islands tensions developed, with the forceful
Presbyterian Church calling for the declaration of the New Hebrides as a
British colony and with the French settlers, backed by the French
community in neighbouring New Caledonia, demanding instead the
establishment of a French colony. The upshot was the establishment in 1906
of the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides, under which a British
administration governed the British/Australian community and a French
administration the French community, with certain common services
eventually being provided on a condominium basis. The indigenous
population were in effect stateless, qualifying for neither British nor
French nationality. This profoundly unsatisfactory system of government
lasted until Vanuatu became independent in 1980. The continuing legacy has
been a dual English-medium and French-medium education system and
political parties which have adopted either a protestant anglophone or a
catholic francophone identity (though this is now beginning to weaken). TABLE
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For
very many years education in the New Hebrides was exclusively the province
of the Christian missions. The purpose of the early schools, which
developed around the various mission stations - anglophone (or initially
using a vernacular) in the case of the Protestant missions, and
francophone in the case of the Roman Catholics- was to teach literacy so
as to provide a greater understanding of the Christian faith plus some
basic mathematics. In due course the Presbyterian and Anglican missions
established centres to provide training for teachers and catechists and a
network of rudimentary English-medium village primary schools began to
develop. This remained the picture until the 1960s, when for the first
time both the British and French administrations began to take an
increasing interest in the education of the population. On the British
side the first Education Officer was appointed in 1959, a Teacher Training
College was established in 1962, and a small British Secondary School, now
Malapoa College, was opened in 1966. On the French side a Lycée was
opened in Vila in 1967 and a major drive was launched to develop a network
of French-medium primary schools throughout the country (at the beginning
of the decade there had been only a handful of such schools) in a
politically inspired effort to alter the language balance of the New
Hebrides. Schools were often built in villages which already had an
English-medium school.
At
the time of independence primary education was available to virtually all
communities, with (1981 figures) 11,303 children attending English-medium
primary schools and 12,438 French-medium primary schools. In the
English-medium sector 864 children were following a three year course at
one of the six junior secondary schools, four of which were church
affiliated, and 132 were attending senior secondary classes at Malapoa
College. Scholarships were available to enable the most able students to
attend University courses in Fiji (at the University of the South Pacific)
or in Papua New Guinea, and a handful of University graduates had by then
already returned to Vanuatu. On the French side 1021 children were
attending secondary classes at the Lycée or one of the three other
French-medium secondary schools, but very few were successful in attaining
their baccalaureat and for these no French-medium university education was
available other than in France. Secondary school teachers in both the
English and French schools were almost all expatriates.
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A
Unified Education System.
The
first task confronting the new Vanuatu Government was to establish a
Ministry of Education and a single education system appropriate for
Vanuatu. This meant the marrying of two very different systems of
administration, the creation of a common salary scale and terms of service
for teachers who were now to be employed by the government, and the
introduction of a common framework of education. The task was a formidable
one. The government accepted that education in both English and French
medium would continue, but on the basis that children should learn the
same things, albeit in different languages. A standard six year primary
course was decided on, with the two year 'classes pratiques' in the French
schools being phased out in favour of the development of rural training
centres offering courses which would enable young people to be usefully
employed in their villages. A universal Year 6 leaving examination was
adopted to govern entrance to junior secondary schools, which from 1986
have provided a common four year course leading to a Year 10 examination,
governing in its turn entrance to the senior cycle of secondary education.
A
Common Curriculum.
A
great deal of effort has been put into the development of a locally
relevant common curriculum for use in all schools. The work has been
centred on the Curriculum Development Unit, which has occupied a
purpose-built building since 1986. A common curriculum for the senior
secondary schools was introduced in 1986 but the development of a common
primary curriculum took longer and it was not until 1991 that a unified
curriculum document was agreed. The present phase of curriculum
development reached a successful culmination in 1998 with the production
of 180 new or revised text books and related materials for primary and
junior secondary schools, in adequate quantities for distribution to all
schools and in both languages of education (except in the case of language
teaching materials). This is a major achievement. At senior secondary
level the possibilities for a common curriculum are more limited, but all
English-medium schools with Year 11 and 12 courses prepare students for
the Pacific senior School Certificate and the College de Santo
(French-medium) hopes to do so in 2000.
Teacher
Training.
The
Ecole Normal was closed in 1981 and the training of teachers has since
been centralised at the Teachers' College. In 1983 a new common two-year
programme for both anglophone and francophone primary school teachers was
introduced. By 1995 all students applying for entry to the college were
expected to have completed their education to Year 12. In the early 1980s
secondary schools were largely staffed by expatriates and there was an
immense shortage of local teachers (in 1983 there were, for instance, only
10 ni-Vanuatu teachers working in the English-medium sector). Secondary
teacher training for French-speaking students was introduced in 1988 and
has taken place since 1994 at the Teachers' College, fully funded by
France and largely staffed by French expatriates. Between 1991 and 1993 a
two-year training programme for English-medium junior secondary teachers
at the Teachers' College was funded under Australian Aid, but has
subsequently been abandoned for lack of ni-Vanuatu tutors.
Availability Of Education.
Education
is now free at primary level, but fees have to be paid at secondary level
and at many primary schools a donation is required. There are sufficient
places in primary schools for every
Gender
Balance.
All
schools are co-educational and there are equal opportunities throughout
the education system for boys and girls. In the 1998 Year 6 examinations
1,176 boys and 1,143 girls were selected for secondary education. At Year
10 181 boys and 159 girls went forward to English-medium senior secondary
classes and 60 girls and 52 boys went forward to the senior classes at the
Lycée. These figures do not seem to justify criticism that girls are
performing significantly less well than boys throughout the system.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
The
Comprehensive Reform Programme (CRP).
In
February 1997 the Vanuatu Government signed an agreement with the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), under which the ADB was to support the preparation
and implementation of a comprehensive programme of economic, political and
social reform. Serge Vohor, the then Prime Minister, explained that the
population of Vanuatu was growing at a faster rate than the economy, that
major reform was essential if the economy was to meet the country's needs,
and that political intervention in the public service and in areas
properly the domain of the private sector had to be reduced. The outline
programme envisaged the restructuring of the economy to provide for
private sector led growth, the right-sizing of the government and public
service, reform of the taxation system, and a human resources development
policy. The Prime Minister's announcement was widely welcomed, with
opposition being expressed only by one leading NGO, which had supposed
with scant justification that a standard IBRD Structural Adjustment
Package was being forced on Vanuatu. Following a period during which the
ideas behind the reform programme were widely publicised and debated, a
detailed programme and action plan was drawn up. This took full account of
the widespread disenchantment with continuing economic stagnation, poor
social services, unstable governments, inefficient public administration
and abuse of power. The CRP was presented to a National Summit ,
consisting of Ministers, MPs, senior public servants and the
representatives of all significant elements in Vanuatu society, and was
unanimously adopted on 27 June 1997. The implementation of the CRP has
subsequently been the priority objective of the Vanuatu Government.
The
CRP is replete with references to the need for a radical improvement in
education and training; this is described as a key policy in the reform
strategy. The most important provision of the CRP, so far as education is
concerned, is 'the adoption of a national goal of ten years ' schooling
for all children by 2010 and the drawing up of an Education Master Plan to
ensure that this is achieved. For a full account of the education content
of the CRP see Appendix A.
The
Education Master Plan.
A
World Bank Mission visited Vanuatu from 6 to 31 July 1998 to assist the
Vanuatu Government in drawing up the Education Master Plan. It
investigated all aspects of Vanuatu's education system and made
recommendations as to how it might be developed over the next 10 to 15
years. An aide memoire set out the mission's findings and recommendations
and was to be followed by a comprehensive document, the first draft of
which was submitted in September. The aide memoire states that the Vanuatu
Government then intends to undertake a 'concerted effort at discussion,
dissemination, popularization and consensus-building before determining
which elements of the document it intends to endorse officially as its
Education Master Plan . The World Banks recommendations, 47 in number,
appear to have government support and the Ministry of Education say that
they are in the process of implementing them, but the widespread
consultation process recommended by the Bank has not yet taken place and,
at the time of writing, it is not clear that formal government approval
has been given.
The
World Bank Mission has recommended a radical restructuring of the entire
education system and the substitution of a goal of eight years education
instead of the CRP target of ten years of education for all children by
2010. They proposes that all children should be offered two years of
primary education. preceded by a preschool year, at Community Schools
where the language of instruction will be the village vernacular. This
will be followed by six years at English or French medium Primary Schools,
leading to a leaving examination at Year 8 rather than Year 6. Those who
pass the Year 8 examination will go on to four years of secondary
education at Provincial High Schools, with pre-university courses being
offered only at Malapoa College, Matevulu College, and the Lycée. The
prospect that primary school drop outs will be age 14 rather than age 12
will be welcomed, but this is not what was wanted by those who were
consulted during the drafting of the CRP. They wanted everyone to have
four years of post-primary education. While the merits of the World Bank's
proposals are cogently argued, there appear to be formidable difficulties
in such a total restructuring of the system, involving major changes at
every level of education and the establishment in every village of a new
and untried breed of school, the Community School. Will this for instance
prove to be within the administrative capacity of the Ministry of
Education? Will it be feasible to translate and produce teaching materials
in the 100 or so village vernaculars, many of which have never been
reduced to writing? Will it be possible to find for these schools
vernacular speakers who are Year 10 graduates, competent to absorb the
limited pedagogic training proposed and to teach? (Some of these
difficulties would be eased if the Community Schools in appropriate areas
were to be bislama-speaking rather than vernacular-speaking.) Have the
complexities of introducing Year 7 and Year 8 programmes into existing
primary schools been properly examined? There seems to be increasing doubt
as to whether the PNG pattern, on which the Bank s proposals are largely
based, can be easily applied to Vanuatu s very different conditions. A
full summary of the World Bank aide memoire is contained at Appendix B.
The
European Union Education Sector Project.
In
March 1997 the Vanuatu Government and the European Commission reached an
agreement under which 75% of the funds available to Vanuatu under the
latest tranche of Lomé Convention aid would be used for the upgrading of
at least 12 existing primary schools to become primary cum secondary
schools (with the object of at least doubling the number of students
graduating from Year 10 by 2002), for the rehabilitation of rural primary
schools (in continuation of a successful project funded under the previous
tranche of EU aid), and for in-service teacher training and the
improvement of the management of education. In July 1998 the project was
taken a step forward by the signature of an agreement which designated 10
English-medium and 8 French-medium schools for upgrading to become primary
cum junior secondary schools. The implementation of this project means
that there will be a good spread of junior secondary schools in every
major island or island group and will be a welcome step forward towards
the implementation of the CRP target of making education up to Year 10
available for all children. The majority of the schools to be upgraded
under the programme have accepted junior secondary intakes in 1999. On its
completion it appears that there will be some 50 schools (including
private schools) offering junior secondary education (31 English-medium,
17 French-medium, and 2, possibly 3, dual-medium). The project does not
seem to conform easily with the World Bank's concept of how the education
system should be developed, and there are certain question-marks as to the
availability in the short term of teachers to man the new secondary
departments . A parallel project for the expansion of two existing well
regarded secondary schools, Onesua High School (English-medium) and
Montmartre (French-medium), is being funded by Australia.
Australian
Secondary Teacher Education Project (VASTEP)
In
December 1998 an agreement was signed under which the Australian
Government undertook to fund a programme to create more English-medium
secondary school teachers in order to meet the needs of the increasing
number of secondary schools. A Junior Secondary School teacher course is
to be introduced at the Vanuatu Teachers College, graduating 25 new
teachers a year, after the training of ni-Vanuatu teacher trainers and
initially with the assistance of six Australian experts. This project
should solve the problem of training English-medium secondary school
teachers in the long term, but it looks as though short term difficulties
will remain.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
APPENDICES
A.
Comprehensive Reform Programme
Vanuatu
Government and references to Education
The
Outline for the CRP was tabled 17 March, 1997 and presented on 27 June
1997.
The
Executive Summary:
B.
The Education Master Plan
The
World Bank Mission which visited Vanuatu 6-31 July 1998 presented its
initial findings and recommendations in an aide-memoire. Based on the CRP
envisaging a redirection of resources to the "delivery of social
services- especially education- which is the key to personal, social,
political and economic development", its aim is to provide a more
literate and better skilled labour force and is "the single most
important tool for building an equitable society".
There
were eight basic parameters for the development of the education system in
Vanuatu
1. The wish to preserve a bilingual (Anglophone/Francophone)
society and an education system using both languages.
2. The desire to provide basic education for all children by
the year 2010 and increased access at other levels, secondary, vocational
and technical and higher level as well as providing a second chance for
those ni-Vanuatu who for whatever reason must interrupt their education.
3. The need to have a more relevant curriculum.
4. The need to provide education of a higher quality than at
present with improved teacher training, supervision, appropriate
infrastructure, need textbooks and adequate assessment.
5. The need to have equity both geographical, gender, social,
linguistic and physical.
6. The need to have collaboration and partnership among
government, church, NGOs, women's groups, parents, communities and the
private sector.
7. The need to have an improved management of the education
system.
8. The need to have a more cost-effective and sustainable
educational system.
Language
Policy (1)
Efforts
should be made to improve the teaching of French in Anglophone schools and
vice versa. Then later the school system might become bilingual. The
teaching of vernacular language in pre-school, Class 1 and 2 would help
enrolment, preserve the country's many vernacular languages and, if the
experience in other countries is anything to go by, becoming literate in
one's mother tongue leads to better, faster and deeper acquisition of a
foreign language.
Basic
Education (2)
Basic
education is to consist of an eight year cycle which would be a reasonable
goal for Vanuatu at this point in its development (financially by 2010).
Initially, Pre-school, Class 1 and Class 2 would be done in community
built and maintained schools in virtually every village in the vernacular
language, with French or English being introduced in Class 2. This would
save smaller children having to walk an hour or two to the nearest primary
school. They would be taught by a local teacher in the village, known to
everyone, who would probably be a Class 10 graduate who would undergo
basic training. Then the local primary school would be able to cater
for
children in Class 3 to Class 8 without the need to undergo the present
Class 6 selection examination and without the expense for parents of
having to send children away to boarding schools. After basic education it
is proposed to provide more and better quality vocational training by
expanding and developing the system of Rural Training Centres which should
be funded through VRDTCA rather than by Government.
Secondary
education would then be available from Class 9 to Class 12, provided
upgrading of teachers and facilities took place. Then every province would
have at least one school offering such education. This again would cut
down the cost to parents of having to pay for children to travel long
distances. The second international language would be introduced at Class
9.
A
comprehensive technology education programme would be introduced in these
schools in place of the industrial arts and home economics. Higher
technical education would be provided by the INTV which now would become a
centre of excellence in this field.
Centres
of excellence would be strengthened so that at least two of Malapoa,
Matevulu and Lycée institutions would continue to Class 13 (the bursary
programme).
Higher
education with the introduction of the second foreign language is
envisaged so that young people would be able to gain acceptance at
institutions and pursue university courses more successfully. Anglophone
students would be able to go to French-style institutions and vice versa.
Following
the success of the Junior Secondary Education Plan of Papua New Guinea
Distance Learning would give those who dropped out of education for
whatever reason a second chance. Material, suitable for all candidates,
could be sent through the post or broadcast on radio, television, Internet
ore-mail, whichever was most cost-effective.
Relevance
of the Curriculum (3)
Because
of the large number of valuable resources available in Vanuatu, the
teaching of the vernacular would be far more relevant than previously. The
Priskul Asosiesen blong Vanuatu has already started in this way and
provided materials could be developed by the Curriculum Development Unit
the use of the local teacher, parent chief and village elder would
encourage enrolment and children to learn because they would not be
frightened of not understanding what was being said. The present recently
published textbooks go a long way to making the material taught being more
relevant to the primary school children of today. Some changes for Class 7
and 8 would be required, more French and more English, more mathematics,
more general science (where laboratory facilities are not required). For
classes 9 to 12 you would need to introduce the second European language
and a comprehensive technology course.
Education
and the Labour market. Of the 3500 young people who leave school each
year, only some 500 are able to secure employment. The remaining 3,000
either have to return to their villages and to work with their families in
agriculture or else drift into the urban areas in search of work. Those at
present who leave after Class 6 are particularly disadvantaged. So by
staying on at school until Class 8 and thereby by leaving with a better
and higher standard of education, pupils will find it easier to obtain
employment. Thus education will go a long way to improve the quality of
the labour market.
The
Quality of Education (4)
This
can only be improved by the provision of more and better qualified
teachers. The Vanuatu Teachers' Training College should be dramatically
upgraded and the Government should provide more funding for the recurrent
expenditures in books, materials and staff. French aid provides for
Francophone teaching staff but there are no counterparts. The Government
of Vanuatu and Australia have agreed a project to train Anglophone junior
and secondary teachers.
In-service
Teacher education with the upgrading of teachers of Class 7 and 8,
required to implement the Education Master Plan, will be undertaken by the
USP in Vila with help from the University of PNG at Goroka.
Teacher
support for all teachers needs to be well supervised in a cost effective
way, not only at the Primary but also at the Secondary level.
Teachers'
conditions of service, particularly the salary scale and incentives and
housing, must also urgently be undertaken. This should be accompanied by a
proper system of teacher inspection, assessment and appraisal.
The
training of Principals and Headmasters should also be undertaken at the
Vanuatu Teachers' College as a matter of urgency (with donor support).
The
National Curriculum Commission should be reactivated to ensure that all
curriculum materials are provided for the new Master Plan, particularly
ensuring its relevance to the continuing needs of Vanuatu.
The
Pacific Islands Literacy Levels-Tests 1 and 2- should continue at the end
of Class 4 and 6. Common examination papers in Mathematics and General
Knowledge should be offered in Class 6 (similar to those offered at
present in Class 10). Eventually the Class 6 selection examination would
be abolished and replaced in Class 8.
School
infrastructure- the provision of toilets and water facilities, the
amalgamation of primary schools and development of schools to cater for
Classes 3 to 8, the upgrading of facilities in Junior Secondary schools to
form the new Provincial secondary schools- will also have to be a major
priority. The problem and responsibility for school maintenance has
already been addressed by the joint FSP and EU Rehabilitation Programme.
Equity
(5)
Urban
and rural equity will be achieved by the rationalisation of the provision
of education in rural areas as well as the introduction of the vernacular
language of education in the villages.
Gender
equity will be achieved if access to schools is expanded in general, thus
encouraging a larger proportion of girls to attend school. This will be
helped by improving the environment of the schools to make it more
attractive and by making people (parents in particular) aware that better
educated girls are more likely to raise healthy, well nourished children
in the right numbers (because of their, now greater, understanding for the
need for family planning).
Linguistic
equity at present is far from equitable. This is, in part, due to the
concerns of the Francophones that:
translation
of educational materials from English to French is poor -- few understand
the pedagogical methods and content of French medium schools -- there is
an unwillingness of Anglophones to learn French.
The Anglophones are also concerned that
there is an unequal access to junior/senior secondary and technical education (35% in anglophone schools and 50% in francophone ones)
there is limited participation of Francophones in developing educational materials the cultural content of textbooks supplied for the teaching of French is inappropriate
education for the handicapped is only likely to be possible through partnership with the NGOs.
Partnerships
(6)
partnerships
are envisaged with communities for the maintenance and building of primary schools
NGOs- Kaljeral Senta, Summer Institute of Linguistics, World Vision, Vanuatu Community Development Fund, Priskul Asosiesen blong Vanuatu and Wan Smalbag - should be actively encouraged
Churches but that agreement between each church and the government as far as education is concerned should be a common one
Private Sector-the establishment of the National Training Council would go a long way to ensure that the education being provided in schools is relevant to the needs of the employers in Vanuatu in terms of skills, standards and levels of certification
External donors should provide all development budget funding leaving the Government of Vanuatu to use public finances for the recurrent budget. This will be vital for the country's development for some years to come
Management of the Master Plan (7)
Appropriate legislation will have to be passed to ensure the implementation of the national educational policy is in the hands of permanent staff, not subject to changes as may be brought about by changes in Government.
Decentralisation, giving greater administrative and financial control to Provincial Education Officers will eventually help to bring the aims of the Educational Master Plan into fruition.
The Ministry of Education also needs to be restructured with a Policy, Planning and Research Directorate established which will eventually lead to an Administrative Services Director responsible for driving the future development of education in the country.
Collecting information from all schools should also be a high priority
A Project Management Unit should be established responsible for the total procurement process.
The Ministry of Education staff should be trained so that at all times it can provide enhanced support to the role of technical and vocational education as part of the education system.
Sustainability (8)
The Government budget forecasts higher economic growth and assuming it grows at 3% per annum and the government expenditure rises to 24% of GDP (of which education should account for 26%) the education budget for 2010 in real terms will be Vt 3.0 billion(at 1998 prices) which is 1.8 times the budget in 1998. This would be enough for ensuring all pupils can receive education up to Class 8.
As far as unit costs are concerned there is in Vanuatu a relatively high cost of education Vt 25,000 for primary school children per annum (f 125)
Vt 86,000 for junior secondary school children p.a. (£ 430)
Vt 110,000 for senior secondary school children p.a. (£ 550)
This is mainly due to: (a) a relatively low pupil-teacher ratio because of the proliferation of small anglophone, francophone and church primary schools
(b) relatively high teachers' salaries
(c) boarding costs which are largely met by parents.
The next steps are to ensure that the National Education Commission
Sets up a working group to report on the day to day matters based on the papers prepared Establishes sectoral sub-committees to study specific aspects
Establishes a drafting group to compile a final document
Calls together a donor co-ordination committee, chaired by the Minister of Education, to inform donors regularly of the progress being made and the required support and help needed. Not only should fully inform government about the Master Plan but should build up a consensus among all sectors- the local community, parents, headmasters and principals, teachers, students, public authorities, the international community and the media so that all are fully aware and involved in its execution.
