The article can be viewed at: http://www.cedol.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Michael-Crossley-article.pd

Bray, TM

Crossley, M

Packer, S

Sprague, T

HKU Scholars Hub

Commonwealth Education Partnerships 2011 15IntroductionThe Commonwealth classes 33 of its member countries as smallstates, adopting a broad definition which includes, alongsidecountries with a population of less than 1.5 million, those largerstates that share many similar characteristics – Botswana, TheGambia, Jamaica, Lesotho, Namibia and Papua New Guinea. Smallstates thus comprise over half of the total membership, and theCommonwealth has a strong mandate to give special attention to them.The 2009/2010 volume of Commonwealth Education Partnershipsreported upon the start of a programme of research on educationin small states commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat(Crossley and Bray, 2010). This study was designed to inform, andtake further shape from, discussions held with Ministers ofEducation and senior officials from small states at the 17thConference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) heldduring 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This paper reflects uponwhat has been achieved since the 17th CCEM, and provides anoverview of the key research findings and issues that are reportedin a new Commonwealth Secretariat publication, Education inSmall States: Policies and Priorities (Crossley, Bray and Packer,2011).The research processResearch began with a critical analysis of global trends anddevelopments at the broadest environmental, economic andsocietal levels. This included an examination of the nature andimpact of international education and development goals andagendas from the perspective of small states. This was directlylinked to the ‘Towards and Beyond Global Goals and Targets’theme that was established for the 17th CCEM. Comparisons werethen drawn with educational and development targets, andaspirations being articulated and advanced within Commonwealthsmall states. In doing so, the research team was able to draw uponearlier studies (Bray, 1992; Bray and Packer, 1993), on an extensivenetwork of policy-makers, administrators, academics andpractitioners working within small states (see www.smallstates.net),and on the findings of doctoral researchers from small statesstudying at the University of Bristol, UK. In addition, consultationwas possible with small states educational planners participating inthe Advanced Training Programme (ATP) at UNESCO’s InternationalInstitute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris. Initial findings were presented directly to a specially convenedmeeting of Ministers of Education and senior officials at the 17thCCEM. The ensuing discussions made a central contribution to thenature, content and focus of the ongoing research. Statistical datarelating to education and human development in small states weredrawn from a parallel study of the performance of Commonwealthcountries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)and Education for All (EFA) targets (Packer and Aggio, 2010).Further detailed research – including field visits to Solomon Islandsand Papua New Guinea – was then possible, within thiscontextually grounded framework. At the theoretical level, thestudy adopted a socio-cultural approach to comparativeeducational research that is sensitive to contexts (Crossley andWatson, 2003), and consistent with Amartya Sen’s influential workon Commonwealth values and respect for and understanding ofdifference (Sen, 2007).Findings and priority issuesContemporary global challenges, limited natural resources andsmall populations underpin the robust commitment of many smallstates to the development of high-level skills for the knowledgeRevisiting educational policies and prioritiesin Commonwealth small statesMichael Crossley, Mark Bray, Steve Packer and Terra SpragueVanuatu has a large number of schoolsspread across some very remote islands.There are 84 secondary schools, 426primary schools and 523 early childhoodkindergartens. FunctionThe function of the Ministry is to deliverthe education aspects of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals and the internationalagreements such as Education for All andrespect for the rights of children. VisionVanuatu Education Road Map (VERM)incorporates the strategic vision foreducation in Vanuatu set out in theVanuatu Education Sector Strategy2007-2016 (VESS). ‘Our vision is for a caring education systemwhich provides every young person withthe lifelong skills, values and confidence tobe self-reliant and to contribute to thedevelopment of Vanuatu, and whichworks in partnership with all stakeholdersto provide well-managed schools.’The VESS remains the guiding documentfor the development of the Vanuatueducation system over the period 2007-2016, and is the umbrella document thatsets the policy framework for theVanuatu education sector. The VERM supports the Vanuatueducation system through focusing onthree key strategic goals: improvedaccess, better quality and strengthenedmanagement. Policy and Strategy The Government of Vanuatu’s strategicdirections for the country are publishedin Priorities & Action Agenda: 2005-2015. It sets out the Government’sstrategic directions for education andhuman resource development. Fourpolicy objectives are adopted:• To improve access to education andensure gender and rural/urbanbalance• To raise the quality and relevance ofeducation• To improve planning, fiscal andfinancial management in the sector• To develop a distinctively Vanuatueducation systemVanuatu Education Road MapKey targets to be achieved through theVERM include:• Increase the net primary enrolmentrate to 100 per cent by 2015• Improve literacy and numeracy skills ofschool age children• Strengthen financial management andaccountability• Increase the proportion of certifiedprimary school teachers• Enrol higher numbers of technical andvocational trainees Joint Partnership and TripartiteGrant-Funding To implement the VERM, Vanuatu isseeking Development Partners to enterinto a Joint Partnership Arrangement.The signatories will be categorised in twogroups: ‘Pool Partners’, who will make afinancial contribution (initially theGovernment of Vanuatu, Australia(AusAID) and New Zealand (NZAID); and‘Non-Pool Partners’ who will contributethrough separate mechanisms (includingthe use of General Budget Support).Main Activities The Government implemented theUniversal Primary Education policy at thebeginning of 2010. There are four policypapers that the Ministry of Education hasbeen working on this year. • Early Childhood Education (ECE)aims to ensure that the quality ofservices is improved. • Education in Emergency (EiE) aimsto increase equitable access toeducation for all people at all levels ofeducation in Vanuatu before, duringand after an emergency.• Inclusive Education (IE) policy andStrategic Plan 2010-2020 weredeveloped for an education systemthat is inclusive of all children. • Education Language Policy (ELP)seeks to develop a national languagepolicy statement that would clearlyreflect the languages of Vanuatu. The completion and publication of thepolicies will occur in 2011. Statutory AuthoritiesThe Ministry of Education portfolioincludes the following statutory bodies:• Teaching Service Commission• Vanuatu Institute of Technology• Vanuatu Institute of TeacherEducationMinistry StructureMinister of Education:Honourable Charlot SalwaiDirector General: Mr Daniel LamoureuxDirector Corporate Services:Mr Jag BeerbulDirector of Education Services:Mr Roy ObedContactMr Jimmy Luna Tasong, First PoliticalAdvisor,Ministry of EducationTel: +678 22309Email: jltasong@vanuatu.gov.vuwww.vanuatu.gov.vuREPUBLIC OF VANUATUMinistry of EducationAn educated, healthy and wealthy nationeconomy through the rapid expansion of secondary, technical,vocational and tertiary education opportunities. The growth oftertiary education thus features strongly in the policy priorities ofmany small states, along with strategies for improved qualityassurance, partnerships with overseas providers, and co-ordinationand regulation (Martin and Bray, 2011). The harnessing ofinformation and communications technology (ICT) is seen to holdconsiderable potential for generating accessible opportunities inthis respect, with the work of the Virtual University for the SmallStates of the Commonwealth (VUSSC) being a notable andinnovative example (West and Daniel, 2009).Key findings and priority issues presented in Education in SmallStates: Policies and Priorities examine the impact of rapidlychanging global forces and circumstances. Climate change, forexample, is particularly challenging for small island developingstates (SIDS) that are uniquely vulnerable to rises in sea levels andassociated threats to vital infrastructure, food production, economicdevelopment and settlement itself. Yet education is generally onthe margins of vulnerability analyses. Implications for education insuch contexts include how education can help communities toreduce their vulnerability to major environmental challenges, andhow disaster preparedness can be incorporated into educationalplanning and cross-sectoral skills training for personnel working inall sectors of society.Most Commonwealth small states have achieved almost universalaccess to basic education and many have either attained or areclose to attaining gender parity in primary and secondaryschooling. On the other hand, some small states, notably in theCaribbean region, have for some time experienced genderdisparities that favour girls (Miller 1991). In the Caribbean, onereason for the disparity at secondary level is a high boys’ drop-outrate. According to government figures in Trinidad and Tobago(2009), for example, the 2006 and 2008 drop-out rates were 14per cent higher for boys than for girls in all but two school districts.According to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s Commissionon Youth Development (2010), a much higher percentage ofJamaican boys drop out of the school system than girls, with ‘drop-out’ young people (aged 15–24) – mainly boys – making up 30 percent of the total youth population (Government of Jamaica, 2009).Educational policies and priorities in small states thus often differfrom those aspects of global goals and targets that currentlydominate international discourse, attention and priorities. The research study therefore argues that small states have beensome of the first countries to prioritise and address more complexanalyses of gender imbalances and equity in education, and tofocus upon issues of retention, quality, inclusion and skills training.In doing so, they have often pioneered the extension of policydiscourse boundaries beyond conventional notions of access andbasic education, aiming to concentrate increased attention uponwhat they perceive as their own distinctive and urgent needs.Moreover, there is much that other small and larger states (in boththe North and the South) can learn from the Caribbean experience(Crossley, 2010). At the same time, international support for education in smallstates remains strategically important if existing achievements areto be consolidated and sustained. Very little direct aid funding goesto education in the Caribbean. Assistance in the south Pacific ismuch greater, though it varies from year to year. For example,Papua New Guinea received well over US$100 million per annumat the beginning of the decade, but only $40 million in 2007.Samoa received $4 million in 2007 compared with $24 million in2006. Aid to Vanuatu fell from $14 million in 2000 to $9 million in2007.Recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) researchindicates that the number of those living below national povertylines in the Pacific region jumped from 4 million to 4.5 million inthe two years prior to mid-2009. Already, the proportion ofemployed people living on less than $1.25 a day in the subregionhas increased from 35 per cent in 2007 to 38 per cent in 2008. Soeven though most Pacific countries had appeared to be on track toachieve universal primary education (MDG2), the economic crisismay mean that more children are unable to enrol in school, dropout or are suspended (due to unpaid fees), or experience declinesin education quality. Other factors that determine school retention in small statesworldwide include participation in early childhood education,health, and respect for indigenous knowledge and local languages.Recognising the former, Commonwealth small states’ provision ofaccess to early childhood education and care are charted in thereport.Research implications and ongoingCommonwealth prioritiesThroughout much of the above discussion, and the study itself, theimportance of locally grounded research in informing policydevelopments and subsequent practice emerges as a furtherpriority issue. As Dame Pearlette Louisy, Governor General of StLucia, argues in the study’s Foreword, ‘Small states have challengedglobal agendas, based on their own tried-and-tested experiences,and on their own knowledge derived from locally groundedcontextually relevant experience and research’ (Louisy, 2011: xv).Our work in small states thus draws attention to the dangers of theuncritical international transfer of policy and practice, and of thesimplistic replication of ‘best practice’ as observed or experiencedelsewhere. The research does, however, generate much support forcomparative studies and for efforts to learn from elsewhere, but inways that facilitate evidence-based adaptations, or challenges, tointernational trends.Policy-makers and planners need strategies to benefit from the factthat small states are sovereign entities, while handling the demandsthat this may bring. Professionals in small states may also need tobe more multifunctional than their counterparts in larger states,who are more easily able to specialise – for example, in aspects ofthe curriculum, financing and aid negotiation. Small states may bemore responsive to reform, since a single actor can have a greaterproportionate influence than would be the case in a larger state;but this may bring challenges of volatility. Planners in small statesare also more likely to face issues of dependency than theircounterparts in larger states.The strengthening of Commonwealth partnerships can facilitatedevelopment that is sustainable and appropriate to context; theSecretariat and other Commonwealth agencies have important andstrategic roles to play. Indeed, following the 17th CCEM, the KualaLumpur Communiqué reinforced Commonwealth commitment toCommonwealth Education Partnerships 2011 17R e v i s i t i n g  e d u c a t i o n a l  p o l i c i e s  a n d  p r i o r i t i e s  i n  C o m m o n w e a l t h  s m a l l  s t a t e sthe support of education in small states (CommonwealthSecretariat, 2009), as does the subsequent Education Strategic Plan2010–2012 (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010). Our own researchhas already made a contribution to ongoing regional consultationson education in small states, and we hope that the work willcontinue to facilitate further productive partnerships, planning anddevelopments across Commonwealth small states in future years.ReferencesBray, M. (1992). Educational Planning in Small Countries. Paris:UNESCO.Bray, M. and Packer, S. (1993). Education in Small States:Concepts, Challenges and Strategies. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Commonwealth Education (2009). 17th CCEM. CommonwealthEducation Online. Available at: http://www.cedol.org/cgi-bin/items.cgi?_item=static&_article=200901221330242998[Accessed July 15, 2011].Commonwealth Secretariat (2009). 17th CCEM Kuala LumpurComminique. 17th Conference of Commonwealth EducationMinisters - Kuala Lumpur Communiqué. Available at:http://www.thecommonwealth.org/document/208198/17ccem_communique.htm [Accessed July 15, 2011].Commonwealth Secretariat (2010). Education Strategic Plan2010–2012: Improve and Promote Quality. London:Commonwealth Secretariat.Crossley, M and Holmes, K. (1999). Educational development inthe small states of the Commonwealth: retrospect andprospect. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.Crossley, M. (2010). Context Matters in Educational Research andInternational Development: Learning from the Small StatesExperience. Prospects, 40, pp.421-429.Crossley, M. and Bray, M. (2010). Small states’ priorities: Learningfrom and across small states: Priorities for educational planningand research. In Commonwealth Education Partnerships 2009.London: Commonwealth Secretariat, pp.31-33.Crossley, M. and Watson, K. (2003). Comparative andinternational research in education: globalisation, context anddifference. London and New York: Routledge.Crossley, M., Bray, M. and Packer, S. (2009). Education in the SmallStates of the Commonwealth: Towards and Beyond GlobalGoals and Targets. The Round Table, 98(405), pp.731-751.Crossley, M., Bray, M. and Packer, S. (2011). Education in SmallStates: Policies and Priorities. London: CommonwealthSecretariat.Louisy, P. (2011). Foreword. In Crossley, Bray and Packer Educationin Small States: Policies and Priorities. London: CommonwealthSecretariat, pp. xiii-xv.Martin, M. and Bray, M. (eds) (2011). Tertiary Education in SmallStates: Planning in the context of globalization. Paris: UNESCO.Miller, E. (1991). Men at Risk. Kingston: Jamaica Publishing House.Packer, S. and Aggio, C. (2010). Achieving Goals – 2009: ThePerformance of Commonwealth Countries in Achieving theMillennium Development Goals in Education and the DakarEducation for All Goals. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.Sen, A. (2007). Civil Paths to Peace: Report of the CommonwealthCommission on Respect and Understanding. London:Commonwealth Secretariat.West, P. and Daniel, J. (2009). The Virtual University for SmallStates of the Commonwealth. Open Learning, 24(1), pp.85-95.Williams, P. and Lee, J.M. (2009). Special Issue: Distinctiveness andDiversity: 50 Years of Commonwealth Co-operation inEducation, The Round Table 98(405).AcknowledgementWe wish to acknowledge the input of the other collaboratingauthors to the book, namely David Atchoarena, Michaela Martinand Mindy Colin. We also thank the Commonwealth Secretariatfor their sustained encouragement and support for the researchand publication.18 Commonwealth Education Partnerships 2011Q u a l i t y  a n d  A c c e s sMichael Crossley is Professor of Comparative andInternational Education, Co-ordinator of the ResearchCentre for International and Comparative Studies at theGraduate School of Education, and Director of theEducation in Small States Research Group(www.smallstates.net) at the University of Bristol, UK.Before moving to the University of Bristol he was AssociateDean for Planning and Research at the University of PapuaNew Guinea. He is an Academician, AcSS, of the BritishAcademy of Social Sciences.Mark Bray is Chair Professor of Comparative Education atthe University of Hong Kong. He has worked at thisUniversity since 1986, prior to which he taught in secondaryschools in Kenya and Nigeria and at the universities ofEdinburgh, Papua New Guinea and London. Between 2006and 2010, he took leave from the University of Hong Kongto work as Director of UNESCO’s International Institute forEducational Planning (IIEP) in Paris. Steve Packer is an independent consultant. He has workedfor the Commonwealth Secretariat, the UK’s Departmentfor International Development (DFID) and the Educationfor All Global Monitoring Report.Terra Sprague is a research fellow in the Research Centrefor International and Comparative Studies at the Universityof Bristol Graduate School of Education, UK. She hasprofessional experience in teacher training, specialeducation, and teaching English as a foreign language inthe small state of Armenia. She is currently working on theimpact of standardised examination systems upon thecultural traditions of small states.

Revisiting Educational Policies and Priorities in Commonwealth Small States

http://www.cedol.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Michael-Crossley-article.pdf

Revisiting Educational Policies and Priorities in Commonwealth Small States

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

HKU Scholars Hub