Sobre los animales

This study was situated in the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands is a small sovereign state located just North East of Australia, between Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It consists of about 1,000 islands and atolls that are scattered over a land area of approximately about 30,400 square kilometres. The six main islands are Guadalcanal, Malaita, Choiseul, New Georgia, Santa Isabel, and Makira. These main islands are characterised by rugged, volcanic, mountain ranges, and the smaller islands are mainly atolls with raised coral reefs and lagoons (National Statistics Office (SISO), 2007). The main transportation link to each island and atoll is via sea transport. These geographical features make it a challenge to provide equitable basic social services, including education, to the entire population. This has been a challenge for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD), in particular, since the 1990s as it tries to maintain the delivery of education services, and manage educational resources in

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an efficient and transparent manner throughout Solomon Islands (Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 2004).

The Solomon Islands became independent in 1978 after 100 years of British rule. The population is estimated to be around 518,000 by the Solomon Islands statistics office in 2009. The total population comprises of 95% Melanesians, 3% Polynesians, and 2% other races. Guadalcanal is the largest island with a total land area of approximately 5,336 square kilometres, and estimated population of about 79,000 in 2009. The capital Honiara, which is located on the Island of Guadalcanal, is the main urban centre with an estimated population of 78,000 people. The Solomon Islands has a high birth rate at an average of 2.8% per annum (National Statistics Office (SISO), 2007). This has implications on the provision of basic social services, including a growing demand for places in schools and qualified teachers.

Cultural context

The majority of Solomon Islanders live in rural villages that observe diverse cultures and customs. Villagers are self-sufficient and self-reliant due to access to their traditional land, and the family kinship system. Such cultural practices prevent Solomon Islanders from experiencing absolute poverty. However, ―...while resource-management regimes are community-based and participatory, their disparate nature creates difficulty in ensuring a national, sustainable, basic supply of food for all.‖ (Coxon, 2008, p.11).

Solomon Islanders are said to speak about 87 different indigenous languages, but only 74 have been recorded so far (Paul, 2009). These languages are spoken by specific groups of people in the different Islands and represent sub-cultures on their own. English is considered the official language to be used at the work place and as a medium of instruction in the school system. However, Solomon Islands Pidjin a neo-Melanesian lingua franca is now widely used by all citizens, and is the common language spoken even at the workplace and in schools (Leve, 2004).

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Like indigenous people in other parts of the world, Solomon Islanders have developed fundamental indigenous knowledge, technologies, skills, competencies, attitudes, values, beliefs, and symbolic systems, enabling them to use the land and sea base resources within their territories to meet their basic needs for the past centuries. Informal learning and teaching styles were, and still are, an integral part of traditional education in the rural villages, which allow parents and other members of the family, clan, or tribe (who have expertise in specific life skills) to educate their children for adult life through socialisation and hands-on experiences. However, Solomon Islanders are experiencing rapid transformation, as a result of their contact with western civilisation and also with various change agents which inevitably pressured individuals to change their way of life and thinking in recent times. Regardless of these changes Solomon Islanders are aware of the importance of maintaining worthy Solomon Islands cultures. Therefore, the biggest challenge for Solomon Islanders is how to effectively maintain their worthy cultures, while at the same time accommodating new cultures. Moreover, the challenge for the Solomon Islands education process, and in particular education planners and policy makers, is to find ways in which Solomon Islands indigenous knowledge can be integrated into the school curricula in order to provide opportunities for future generations to learn and appreciate their indigenous culture (Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 2007a). This includes the need to integrate traditional knowledge and practices in teaching pedagogies employed by teachers and teacher educators.

The ethnic conflict experienced in Guadalcanal between 1998 and 2003 has also impacted on the delivery of basic social services, including education services and the amount of resources made available to schools by the MEHRD. There was a general view held by Solomon Islanders that the values and attitudes promoted through the western lifestyle and education system contributed to the development of the conflict (Coxon, 2008). The current Solomon Islands education system was blamed for the increased tensions within Solomon Islands communities, because of ―…its promotion of and focus on economic advancement.‖ (Coxon, 2008, p.13). The education system has been criticised for being disconnected to the social and cultural values which formed the basis of the Solomon Islands culture for

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centuries. This posed a challenge for the Solomon Islands government, especially the MEHRD, to bring about major reforms in its education system. Such reforms should recognise and integrate the Solomon Islands cultural values and practices in the school system (Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 2004).

Education context

Like other Pacific Islands that were formally colonised and later granted political independence, the Solomon Islands formal education system was introduced by the early Christian missionaries between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It was not until later in the 20th century that the colonial administration (British Government) assumed a greater responsibility for the entire school system. All teaching and learning resources were developed and produced in Great Britain and shipped to the Solomon Islands, so were the teachers who were brought in to teach the local children. The Cambridge School Leaving Certificate curriculum was eventually abandoned when the National School Curriculum was introduced in 1975. Since independence in 1978, the Solomon Islands government has taken full responsibility for the national school curricula. It was then that the government realised the need to educate teachers in the Solomon Islands to deliver the Solomon Islands school curriculum in schools. Initially, pre-service and in-service secondary teachers were awarded scholarships to undertake their teacher education in PNG, Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. However, due to the increase in the number of secondary schools in the mid- 1980s the MEHRD saw the need to expand teacher education programmes at SOE-SICHE to cater for the training of secondary teachers locally (Rodie, 1997).

The MEHRD is responsible for ensuring the operation and development of schools and training institutions throughout the Solomon Islands. The MEHRD managed over 600 primary schools with a student enrolment of 85,000, and 140 secondary schools with a student enrolment of 29,000. It also supported 28 Rural Training Centres with a total enrolment of approximately 1500 students. It also manages a teaching establishment of over 4,000 teachers (Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 2007). The Ministry of Education is divided

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into divisions that have specific responsibilities and functions that support the work of teachers in the Solomon Islands.

The education system in the Solomon Islands comprises of three main categories of secondary schools that enroll students from years 7 to 13. These include:

 National Secondary Schools (NSS) - these were the original secondary schools established by the Churches but are now receiving substantial support from the Government, and enroll students from Years 7 to 13 across the country;

 Provincial Secondary Schools (PSS) - these were initiated by the Government but are run by the provinces, and enroll students from Years 7 to 11 only, but student enrolment is restricted to the provinces only;  Community High Schools (CHS) - these started as primary schools, and

expanded to include secondary education courses. CHSs are built and managed by communities, and are assisted by church or provincial education authorities, and enroll students from Years 7 to 9 only, but some a now enrolling Years 10 and 11 students as well (Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 2007b).

The purpose of secondary education is to expand students‘ knowledge of subjects already studied at the primary school level, including the systematic study of literature, sciences, mathematics, social studies, commerce, and other subjects essential for physical and intellectual development and to prepare students for specialised skills training.