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Improved water sanitation, access to electricity and power and improved infrastructure are just some of the challenges facing the St Vincent’s Early Childhood Centre in the Solomon Islands.
The centre, in a remote part of East Honiara, was visited by Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni and members of her delegation this week.
In her opening remarks to the delegation, Centre spokesperson Mary Susurua says they are grateful for the ongoing support from New Zealand to improve Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in their country.
The centre was part of a pilot programme in 2021 aimed at drawing on local knowledge to improve children’s literacy and numeracy skills through the active participation of parents and communities in community-based learning.
In 2019 St Vincents had no classrooms and resources, however in October 2020 the school became a registered early childhood centre. It has a roll of more than 900 students aged from 3 to 15 with over 600 of primary age and around 264 early childhood infants. At any given time there are around 75 students per class.
Susurua says this can put a toll on their already stretched resources and says the impact of cyclones and flooding in the area are all too common because the centre is situated near a riverbank.
Minister Sepuloni addressed students and staff assuring them of New Zealand’s ongoing commitment to improve ECCE governance, infrastructure as well as raise literacy and numeracy rates by developing learning materials in indigenous languages.
While improvements continue to be made to the overall infrastructure of the centre to improve issues around electricity and power, Susurua hopes that, by providing better facilities and infrastructure, this will help improve the standard of education their students deserve.
Minister Sepuloni says New Zealand is supportive of the government’s efforts to have more renewable energy, given that only about 20 percent of the Solomons is connected to the power grid. She added that she has spoken to Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and (Foreign) Minister Manele to assure them that New Zealand will continue its support on this issue.
Minister Sepuloni also thanked children, teachers and parents in their quest for higher learning, “Education is important to New Zealand and Solomon Islands.
“We know your parents want the best quality education for you children so we are going to keep working with the government of Solomons to support infrastructure, resourcing, development for education.”
