PRESS RELEASE (82/10)
13th August 2010

A consultation meeting on the Pacific Education Development Framework has agreed on regional priority projects for implementation under the Framework endorsed by the Forum Education Ministers’ Meeting last year.

The meeting organized by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat was attended by Directors of Education from Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Palau and Tuvalu, and representatives of the University of the South Pacific (USP, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (SPBEA), UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, NZAid and AusAID. It was held in Nadi, Fiji 11 – 13 August.
 

Among some of the issues, the meeting discussed major challenges that continue to face Pacific education systems as identified in the Forum Basic Education Action Plan Review Report; Review the Pacific Education Development Framework (PEDF) and identify areas that need interventions; agree on regional initiatives to support the implementation of the PEDF at country levels and make recommendations to next Forum Education Ministers’ Meeting (FEdMM) on regional initiatives and modality for donor intervention in support of the regional initiatives.

Regional priority projects to be submitted to the next FEdMM to be held in Papua New Guinea in October this year cover areas including literacy and numeracy, education for sustainable development, monitoring and evaluation of quality of education focusing on teacher education and development of other capacities to better deliver in classrooms and develop their skills and ICT in education.

The participants at the meeting agreed that the consultation meeting has been effective in bringing together the different parties involved in education in the region to talk to each other in terms of their common areas of involvement and see how they could work together to avoid duplication.

The presentations during the meeting created a lot of constructive discussions focusing on priority regional target areas for the implementation of the Pacific Education Development Framework. The regional and international organizations as well as development partners present during the meeting were also made aware of what priority projects they could cooperate as part of the implementation of the PEDF.

The meeting agreed to see how a special mechanism could be devised to support the challenges and constraints being experienced in the education systems of the Smaller Island States within the Forum membership.

ENDS.
 

For media enquires contact Mr Johnson Honimae, the Forum Secretariat’s Media Officer on phone 679 9458763 or email: johnsonh@forumsec.org.fj.