This case study illustrates pre-service developments that respond to Vanuatu’s consensus to prioritise children’s achievement of learning. It demonstrates innovative responses to disappointing progress on a reform agenda. It will be of interest to countries undergoing a similar, holistic renovation of curriculum and teacher quality, especially those gradually focusing on sector-wide programs and the underlying reasons for poor learning outcomes.
Country development context
Vanuatu is a least developed small island state, comprising 83 islands. It has an estimated 246 000 inhabitants and more than 100 languages are spoken in-country. Vanuatu is typical of many Pacific islands states in its development challenges—population dispersal, remoteness and multilingual diversity.
Vanuatu has two official languages, English and French, which is reflected in education provision. The education sector requires a coordinated vision. At the same time, the bilingual tradition has perhaps assisted in Vanuatu’s early recognition of the importance of a language of instruction that children understand.
Table 7: Vanuatu education statistics
Number of students (primary and secondary) 63,025
Net enrolment rate (primary) 86.3%
Net enrolment rate (secondary) 22.6%
Number of teachers (primary and secondary) 2,688
Percentage of female teachers (primary and secondary) 51.0%
Percentage of teachers certified (primary, government sector only) 62.3%
Number of schools (primary and secondary) 521
Percentage of children able to read at the fluency level needed to understand Grade 3 text
English 24%
French 23%
Total public expenditure on education as % of total government expenditure 26.2%
Total public expenditure on education as % of gross domestic product 6.6%
Percentage of education budget spent on teachers’ salaries 71.9%
Data sources: Vanuatu National Statistics Office, Annual Statistical Digest, Ministry of Education and Training, 2014, pp. 7, 16–7, 23–4, 48 and 58; Vanuatu Early Grade Reading Assessment Baseline Survey Anglophone Stream—Results Report, 2010, p. 11; and Vanuatu Early Grade Reading Assessment Baseline Survey Francophone Stream—Results Report, 2010, p. 11. Education reform
Vanuatu has an Education Sector Strategy 2007–201645 and an implementation plan, the Vanuatu Education Road Map (VERM).46 From 2007, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has been concerned about very low literacy and numeracy results on the national standardised test of achievement (VANSTA).47 This concern was reconfirmed by a 2010 World Bank Early Grades Reading Assessment showing that only 22 per cent of Grade 3 students were fluent readers. One-in-five students repeated a year in primary school. The net enrolment in secondary (years 7 to 13) was also extremely low, at 22.6 per cent.48
Factors in Vanuatu’s political economy impact on teacher quality. Even though there is an oversupply of teachers, more continue to be appointed due to political pressure.49 A World Bank report highlighted inefficiencies in the government’s management of teachers. Graduates were unemployed while an estimated 40 per cent of the 1862 primary school teachers in Vanuatu were uncertified and had below a Grade 12 education.50
In response to poor results, the MoE in 2011 revised the literacy and numeracy curriculum for years 1 to 3 and proposed a comprehensive program of literacy improvement through the newly created In-Service Unit. A new Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy was also developed.
In 2012, Vanuatu also endorsed a national language policy which supported beginning
education in a student’s vernacular language, with a transition to English or French (the official languages of instruction). In 2014, the Curriculum Development Unit decided to provide early grade teaching and learning materials in Bislama—Vanuatu’s national language—to reduce logistical difficulties and the costs of servicing many local languages or vernaculars. Additional training and support is reportedly available to teachers if they wish to teach in the vernacular.* Australian support
Education is a priority for Australian aid to Vanuatu.51 The present VESP, developed out of VERM’s sector-wide approach from 2010, involved the governments of Australia and New Zealand and UNICEF in a joint partnership. The sector-wide approach provided direct financing through Government of Vanuatu systems and relatively low levels of technical assistance. Slow progress on outputs and the need to more effectively address the root causes of low performance resulted in a redesign into the current VESP program in 2011 (Table 8).52 A managing contractor and extensive technical assistance were introduced.
Table 8: Vanuatu Education Support Program information
Initiative name Vanuatu Education Support Program (INK372)
Time period 2012 to 2017
Implementation Managing contractor (funded with New Zealand)
Status Active
Location Nation-wide, Vanuatu
Total value $37.5 m (13.2% spent on teacher development to 30 June 2015)
The long-term goal
VESP’s long-term goal is to improve education quality, provide more equitable access to education for all people, and manage the education system well. The program is more targeted than was the earlier VERM. It has also prioritised access through school grants to provide fee-relief, and has introduced school-based management reforms to enhance the school grants scheme.
VESP focuses on improving learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy in ECCE and the first three years of primary education (Kindergarten to Year 3), recognising the foundational role these years play in learning.
* DFAT Vanuatu has reported that: ‘Since 2015, activities and training are happening all through the country to support teachers who wish to use the vernacular language’. DFAT Vanuatu has advised that 15 per cent of schools in 2015 were using Bislama as the language of instruction in the early grades and 85 per cent one of the vernaculars.
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The program’s outcome relevant to its long-term goal and teacher development is to have ‘literacy and numeracy levels of children in early years of education reach national standards’. Two key strategies are relevant to improving the system:
1. Train and support teachers to implement the new literacy and numeracy curriculum.
2. Develop capacity within the MoE to deliver an effective, well-managed and de-concentrated education system in Vanuatu.
Lessons from the Vanuatu Education Road Map
VESP’s new direction builds on lessons from the VERM. Provincial trainers from VERM’s In-service Training Unit mentored teachers in the field on the new literacy and numeracy curriculum. However, both curricular and language reforms needed better policy and institutional arrangements to be effective.
The training unit only had three staff to provide curriculum writing, training and mentoring, not enough to ensure teachers understood the new literacy and numeracy curriculum. The 2012 change in language policy required teachers to use children’s mother tongue for instruction, but only around 18 per cent of pre-schools reported doing so at the time.53 There was no mandated guidance or training.
Provincial offices received only 0.01 per cent of the MoE budget, two-thirds of which was used for overhead running costs. As a result, provincial education officers, school improvement officers, zone curriculum advisers and school principals received little training.
Meanwhile the pre-service Vanuatu Institute of Teacher Education (VITE) was underworked and under-used for teacher development to meet the reforms, even though it had played a key role in revising the curriculum. VITE was institutionally disconnected from the development of teachers’ capacities to carry out the reforms.