The joint French-British administration has allowed a complex system to evolve where French, English or Bislama may all the language of instruction in schools, depending upon which island it is being delivered. Compulsory school attendance is for only 7 years from the age of 6 and rates of attendance are low. It is believed that only 20-25% of students who complete primary education levels go on to secondary levels. The overall educational structure is a 6-4-3 model.
Public spending on education by the Vanuatu Government averaged 6.4% of GDP and 28.1% of total government outgoings in 2008. Despite this high (by world standards) level of expenditure, there are persistent concerns regarding curricula and teaching outcomes. Teacher training standards are extremely low. Over a third of all teachers in Vanuatu have not completed secondary school. Teacher absenteeism also remains a significant issue. The dual (English-French) education system, a legacy of the colonial past, is a further cause for concern, as it results in considerable duplication of effort and inefficiency. Despite the high level of spending on education, many rural schools lack basic teaching equipment, facilities and materials, while the level of physical infrastructure is often poor.
In theory, primary and secondary education is both free and compulsory. However, education in Vanuatu is neither in practice. School attendance in Vanuatu is the lowest in the Pacific. Primary and secondary schools charge fees for tuition, boarding, textbooks and other services and materials. Widespread rural poverty means that fees are a significant barrier to school attendance. High rates of non-attendance are also partly attributable to the discouragement arising from poor quality schooling, student health issues, rural isolation and the competing demand for child labour from the household economy. Student progress is limited by quotas and the inadequate supply of school places, particularly in secondary schools.
At present, the Vanuatu education system recognises six levels of education. These are: Preschool (ages 3–5), Primary (ages 6–12), Junior Secondary (ages 13–16), Senior Secondary (ages 17–20), Technical Education (ages 13–18) and Tertiary Education (ages 19 and up). Since 2003, the Ministry of Education has sought to provide an additional two years of primary education and to shorten junior secondary school to two years.
a) School education
Pre-Primary Level
Early childhood education for children aged 4-5 years is provided through community and church-run preschools. The latest available figures (2007) indicate that there were 644 preschools in Vanuatu. This figure is almost certainly higher than the current total, due to falls in the number of centres and the range of early childhood services during recent years.
Cost, cultural factors and the limited number of places mean that preschool enrolments are small as a percentage of the preschool population. Even in the Port Vila area, it is estimated that as few as 13% of preschool aged children are enrolled in a pre-school.
Although preschool education began in Vanuatu as early as the 1960s, early childhood education was for a long time been accorded a low priority by the Vanuatu Government. This situation is slowly changing and Ministry of Education now gives increasing attention to preschools. The Ministry funds the Vanuatu Early Childhood Association (VEJA), a NGO which has existed since the early 1980s. Working with the VEJA, the Ministry of Education is currently addressing a number of pressing issues. The Ministry has approved guidelines on preschool standards and funds a network of Preschool Coordinators, who train preschool teachers and work to raise community awareness. The Ministry’s efforts in this area are constrained by the relatively meagre allocation of resources to the early childhood sector: as little as 0.1% of total budget in 2009.
Primary Level
Primary education extends from grade 1-7. Around 96% of students in this age range actually attend primary school. This statistic combined with poor retention rates of students moving on the secondary may be linked to low adult literacy rates.
There were 488 primary schools in Vanuatu in 2007. Most of these schools are located in rural communities. High drop-out rates and non-attendance are a continuing problem. According to one estimate, the completion rate for Vanuatu primary students is only 73.2%. Before the recent introduction of fee subsidies, access to primary education was in decline and continued progress towards the universal basic education depends on foreign aid funding.
Secondary Level
Junior secondary is from grades 8-10 and senior secondary from grades 11-13. Only 17% of students in the secondary age-group are enrolled in a school.
There are secondary schools (typically boarding schools) in each province and in the Port Villa area. The number of secondary schools has increased in recent years: from 42 in 2004 to 81 in 2007. Most of these schools are junior secondary schools and there is a serious shortage of places. Rates of non-attendance are high and increase sharply as student age rises. This trend is associated with “push-out” phenomenon, the process whereby quotas exclude increasing numbers of school-age children at each stage.
Non-Government Schools
Most secondary schools are government-funded, but are also a number of church schools receiving part-funding. In 2006, private school grants accounted for an estimated 19.2% of Ministry of Education expenditure.
In addition to church-run schools, there are a number of private schools. Some of these teach on the basis of overseas curricula. The Port Vila International School (PVIS) offers education up until Year 10, based on the Australian and New Zealand curriculum. There is also a private Francophone secondary school, the Ecole Francaise de Port Vila, which follows the traditional French primary and secondary curriculum.
b) Vocational education and training (VET)
Post-secondary education is relatively small part of the education sector in Vanuatu. Less than 5% of the post-school age population are enrolled in post-secondary education. The underrepresentation of women is particularly marked in both TVET and university study.
From the late 1990s onwards, the Vanuatu Government has placed increasing emphasis on TVET. The government-run Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) is the major TVET provider in the country, with a main campus in Port Vila and two smaller provincial centres. The VIT has benefited in recent years from support from foreign agencies such as the European Union (EU) and AusAID.
Other major state-run TVET agencies include: the Vanuatu Agricultural Research and Training Centre (VARTC), the Vanuatu Agricultural College (VAC), the Vanuatu Maritime College (VMC), the Vanuatu College of Nursing Education, the Malapoa Teacher Training College, the Vanuatu Institute of Teacher Education (Institut de Formation des Enseignants de Vanuatu), the Centre Universitaire Francophone and the Tagabe Agricultural School. In addition, government staff receive training through foreign-funded aid projects and in-service, in-house training. The Vanuatu Government also manages a small number of smaller training centres in the provinces and Youth Drop-In Centres.
Non-government agencies are largely responsible for the provision of TVET in rural areas. The Rural Training Centres (RTC) network consists of 53 local centres run by private individuals, church groups and community organisations. The RTCs work under the umbrella of the Vanuatu Rural Training Centres Development Association (VRDTCA) and are independent of the Vanuatu government. A number of NGOs are also active in providing informal training in the areas of community, rural and women’s development.
In recent years, foreign aid agencies have made a significant impact on the provision of TVET in Vanuatu, introducing different approaches and new standards. The AusAID-managed Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC) provides Australian Certificate-level vocational training in a wide range of areas (including metal-working, hospitality, tourism and the building trades). Another foreign-run TVET agency is the Institut de Technologie (INTV). The INTV offers courses in building, automotive trades, business studies, tourism, hospitality, and the electrical trades. INTV is supported by the French Government and AusAID.
c) Higher education
Pre-Tertiary and Tertiary Education
The largest single—and almost the only—provider of university-level education in Vanuatu is the University of the South Pacific. The USP has a campus in Port Villa that houses the Law School and three smaller Sub-Centres elsewhere in Vanuatu. The University provides students in Vanuatu with both foundation training and degree-level programs. In 2008, the USP had 573 EFTs in Vanuatu, 5.5% of the total USP enrolment. The main campus is based in Fiji and offers a range of distance education courses.
There are two other tertiary education providers operating in Vanuatu: the Malapoa Teacher Training College and the Tagabe Agricultural School both provide tertiary programs.
Overview of Distance Education
In one sense, distance education (DE) has a respectable history in Vanuatu. The USP has provided DE-based programs since the pre-Independence period. However, in other respects, distance education is in its infancy. The Ministry of Education did not release a distance education policy until 2006. In this document, the Ministry identified distance education as a primary strategy for increasing access to formal and non-formal education, recognising the critical importance of distance education for new learners, second-chance learners and life-long learners.
Despite official commitment to distance education in Vanuatu, there are a range of daunting obstacles. These include the lack of a Ministry-wide acceptance of distance learning as a legitimate mode of teaching, a scarcity of trained human resources, and the state of local telecommunications networks. The low level of computer ownership and Internet penetration in Vanuatu is a significant factor in this regard.
The use of distance education in secondary education is relatively rare. Students from rural districts are much more likely to be educated at boarding schools than to receive distance education instruction. However, there are signs of innovation in this area. In 2005 a private Christian institution began offering a DE-based secondary program. Under this scheme, Vanuatu secondary students are able to study for Victorian Year 11 and Year 12 qualifications. This program is offered in conjunction with the Distance Education Centre Victoria (DECV) in Australia.
The use of open and distance learning in TVET has hardly begun in Vanuatu. The Vanuatu Rural Training Centres Development Association (VRDTCA) is a major participant in the Yumi Konek rural connectivity project. However, this project does not appear to have advanced beyond a basic stage.
The USP is the major distance education provider in Vanuatu. For decades, the USP has provided students in Vanuatu with print-based learning materials designed to facilitate home-based study.
During the 1980s, there were a number of attempts to offer satellite-based distance education in Vanuatu. Apart from experiments undertaken by the USP in this period, there was an attempt to offer French-language university tuition by satellite. In 1998, an international consortium of French universities established a regional office in Port Vila. Although the consortium intended to provide degree courses by satellite in Vanuatu and throughout the Pacific, this initiative was ultimately unsuccessful.
A major advance in distance education technology came with the USPNet upgrade in 2006. This step provided increased bandwidth, permitting higher quality broadcasting. The USP now provides distance students in Vanuatu with access to teaching material in a range of formats. These include online teaching materials (hosted in a Moodle LMS), video broadcast courses, CD-ROMs, DVDs, audio tapes and video tapes. Students are also able to participate in audio- and video-conferencing. These new modes are gradually replacing or supplementing traditional print-based resources.
A recent private sector entrant into the distance education field in Vanuatu is the Vanuatu College of Medicine (VCM). The College offers DE-based medical education to international students. The College has applied to the Australian Medical Council for recognition, in order that VCM students obtain eligibility to sit the Australian Medical Council (AMC) examination.
Administration and Finance
Responsibility for education in Vanuatu lies primarily with the Ministry of Education. However, there are no figures for Ministry expenditure in the distance education area, or for relevant expenditures by other Vanuatu Government agencies.
Under the Foreign Investment Promotion Act, any private-sector investment in distance education would require approval from the Vanuatu Investment Promotion Authority (VIPA). It is also likely that such an enterprise would require licensing under the Business Licence Act.
The Ministry of Education is mandated to provide one of the fundamental human rights – education for all. Education is seen as the pre-eminent tool for achieving increased economic prosperity and social welfare and stability. The Ministry of Education offices are located in Port Vila. Provincial Education Offices (PEO) are located in other centres.
In 2010, the Vanuatu Government announced its policy of free education for all primary schools this year 2010. The Government provided 6,800 vatu [US$70] to every child in all primary schools from Year 1 to Year 6. The money came from Australia, New Zealand and UNICEF (a solid commitment worth 2.3 billion vatu [US$24 million] over the next three years). However, the amount provided to each child may not be enough to remove all the expenses from parents to send their children to school; parents will still be expected to pay for transport expenses, food and clothes for their children. The amount will reduce the burden of school fees, and the government estimated that it would remove the fees from 70% from those schools that charge less than 6,800 vatu in one year.
Higher Education Reforms
Reform of higher education in Vanuatu is largely dependent on the direction of USP policies. To date, USP has largely used English as the medium of instruction in Vanuatu. The University is committed to the extension of its learning environment in Vanuatu to cater for Francophone students. This initiative is expended to widen access to university education for this segment of the Vanuatu community.
Future Direction of Tertiary Education
The future direction of tertiary education in Vanuatu is unclear. The USP has a near monopoly on the provision of university education in the country. There are signs of increasing interest from higher education providers in Australian and New Zealand in Vanuatu as a market for specialised distance education programs. An example is the Australian and New Zealand School of Government’s Pacific Executive (PACE) program, which has taught a number of students from Vanuatu.
Information and Communications Technology Initiatives
The future direction of tertiary education in Vanuatu is unclear. The USP has a near- monopoly on the provision of university education in the country. There are signs of increasing interest from higher education providers in Australian and New Zealand in Vanuatu as a market for specialised DE programs. An example is the Australian and New Zealand School of Government’s Pacific Executive (PACE) program, which has taught a number of students from Vanuatu.
a) Information society strategy
None identified.
b) Major e-learning initiatives
None identified.
c) Benchmarking e-learning
None identified.
d) Support for OER
The USP is actively engaged in OER for facilitating distance study in the Pacific region. One example is the release by USP of a free open resource on study skills in January 2010. This resource was developed as part of the EU-funded SideCAP Project.
e) Government entities
Vanuatu Ministry of Education
Vanuatu National Education Council (NEC)
Vanuatu National Training Council (VNTC)
Provincial Training Boards
Vanuatu Investment Promotion Authority (VIPA)
Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) Board
f) Associations and networks
Pacific Regional Initiatives for the Delivery of Basic Education (PRIDE)
Vanuatu Rural Development and Training Centers Association (VRDTCA)
g) Distance education journals
None identified.
Interesting Distance Education Initiatives
Nothing indicates the problems of distance education provision in Vanuatu better than the case of non-accredited institutions of higher learning. Vanuatu has become notorious for hosting non-accredited agencies forced to leave their home countries under regulatory pressure. Three Vanuatu-based institutions which term themselves a university are Revans University, Calamus International University and Hartford University. These institutions purport offer to a range of distance education programs, from degree level to higher degree qualifications. Outside Vanuatu, these “universities” are widely regarded as bogus institutions offering fraudulent qualifications.