Nabilah S
The Vanuatu Government, through the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and with the help of the Australian Government through the Vanuatu Education Support Program, has given grants to 24 Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teachers. (VESP).
They will go through an eight-month training program at the Emalus Campus of the University of the South Pacific (USP) to get a better job in their field.
The start of this project took place at the USP Emalus meeting room in Port Vila yesterday morning.
Mrs. Salote Rokotokalecu oversees the ECCE program for Pacific Technical and Further Education (PTAFE), and says that Vanuatu is the first place in the Pacific where the Government pays for ECCE teachers to go through training like this.
Mr. Jay Boe, the MOET Tertiary Division Teacher Education Development Coordinator, said that the main goal of this project is to improve the teachers’ teaching skills and qualifications to meet the Teaching Service Commission’s standard for qualifications. (TSC).
Mrs. Nanise Lapi, the Acting Director General (DG) and Director of Education Services at the MOET said that the main problem with ECCE in Vanuatu is the need to improve the qualifications of ECCE teachers.
“Because of where Vanuatu is and how teachers are educated, how much money they have, how easy it is to get on the internet, and even how people think there, it has been hard for ECCE teachers to move on to upgrade,” she said.
Mrs. Lapi said that the ECCE’s raw data from the beginning of this year showed that 699 of the 909 teachers in the country who teach ECCE classes need to be improved by 2030 because they don’t have the right level of education to be ECCE teachers.
She also said that only two of these teachers have their Certificate (CERT) 1, while 147 have their Certificate (CERT) III, 27 have their Certificate (CERT) 5, 23 have their Diploma, and only four have their Bachelor.
Mr. Lapi says this project is part of the MOET’s more extensive plans, laid out in the Vanuatu Education and Training Sector Strategy (VETSS) for 2019–2030.
“This strategic plan is in line with the Vanuatu National Sustainable Development Plan 2016–2030, which is in line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda, especially SDG 4, Pillar 1 Goal 2, which aims to ensure access to education, improvement of management systems, formalization of ECCE, and more opportunities in higher education,” Mrs. Lapi said.
I know that ECCE is happy to be in charge of this project because they’ve been asking for a long time, but it will take focus, time, effort, and dedication to succeed.”
The acting DG said that the Teacher Development Plan and USP would give the training and that this is the way forward.
ECCE is happy to be in charge of this project because they’ve wanted it for a long time, but it will take attention, time, effort, and dedication to succeed.”
The temporary DG said that the Teacher Development Plan and USP would provide the training and that this is the way to go.
