Education reform in Tonga
For many Pacific nations, education is regarded as the key foundation stone of building a peaceful, productive, and prosperous society.
Words such as ‘education is the pathway to the future’ resound rather philosophically from one island nation to another.
‘Education opens the door to opportunities,’ is another maxim popularly touted in many Pacific cultures.
There is a common belief that education provides the capacity building in human resources for self-determination.
But Pacific educators are looking for solutions as to why there is very little improvement in student performance outcomes in the classroom, even after so much reform activities and programs have been carried out.
Tonga is a nation with a long history of education, the first high school being founded in 1866 by Wesleyan missionaries. Tupou College, which still exists to this day, is one of the first educational institutes established in the Pacific islands. But, as early as the mid-1820s, schools teaching people literacy and numeracy were started all over the island kingdom.
The standard of education in Tonga has been a hallmark in its social development over the past 175 years. But the major period of development came when the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV became Minister of Education while he was still the Crown Prince in 1946.
He founded Tonga High School in 1947, Tonga’s first prep school for those who want to go on to tertiary level education. Today, Tonga High School remains Tonga’s elite high school granting education to students from all over Tonga who must pass a national examination for entry.
Tupou IV was the first Tongan who graduated from University. He built Tonga’s education system with a vision not only to enable every Tongan to read and count, but also to send overseas those who could be trained as doctors, engineers, agriculturalists, accountants, etc.
He succeeded by establishing an education system for everyone, a system in which everyone can have access to, irrespective of his or her social class, economic situation, or religious beliefs.
But the Tonga of the 21st century is a different society from when Crown Prince Tungi became Minister of Education in the mid-20th century.
With a high literacy rate, and a high rate of University graduates, even boasting one of the highest number of PhD holders per population, of any nation, Tonga is one of the highest educated island nations in the Pacific region.
Over the past decade however, reform to the education system has been the preoccupation of education officials.
Recently Tonga was host to the 20th Consultation Meeting of the Pacific Heads of Education Systems under the umbrella of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
There were 11 nation states represented – Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, FSM, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Tuvalu, Tonga, and Vanuatu; and 19 representatives from development partners and donor organizations.
Dr ‘Ana Taufe’ulungaki, Tonga’s current Minister of Education, and a former Director of the Institute of Education at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva, as well as Pro-Chancellor Research, gave the keynote address at Fa’onelua Convention Centre in Nuku’alofa where the meetings were held.
Dr ‘Ana, as she is commonly known, is one of the foremost advocators for culturally relevant and values based education in the Pacific.
Tonga’s Prime Minister brought in Dr ‘Ana as an education expert in 2010 to head up the Ministry of Education. She is one of only two unelected members of Cabinet and of Parliament, brought into Government because of her expertise. She brought her own brand of reform to Tonga’s education system.
For over a decade, Dr ‘Ana has been preaching a doctrine that if a student masters reading and writing in his/her mother tongue, it would be easier for that student to read and write in another language. This belief has been translated into a language policy in Tonga, which has remarkably changed the approach of teaching students in their mother tongue.
This has been proven effective for decades in many countries and societies like Japan, China, and others in Asia. But in Tonga, this language approach to learning has enabled students to understand basic educational concepts and subjects in their own language and cultural context.
In her opening remarks, Dr ‘Ana told the meeting: ‘Tonga has embarked on an ambitious educational reform program in the last decade, which began with the development and adoption of its Sector review of Education, the development of its first Strategic Policy Framework and the implementations of the Tonga Education Support Program (TESP)… It was a total system overhaul. TESP I is now completed and reviewed and we have now begun TESP II.’
Much of the new curriculum reform focuses on basic literacy and numeracy and mother-tongue education, she told the meeting.
The Ministry has also developed and published a number of mother-tongue reading books, and the implementation of the national language policy.
Dr ‘Ana outlined the programs and activities that have been carried out in Tonga, but she pointed out that current reform activities focus on three priority areas: students’ competencies, teachers’ competencies, and teaching and learning standards.
Reform to the curriculum is outcomes-based, and the ministry is reforming educational assessment, measurement, and evaluation, which include the establishment of minimal service standards.
Dr ‘Ana said, ‘These include staff appraisals, which are linked to performance as well as professional development purposes.’ She also said that reforms are also ongoing in other parts of the Pacific.
But despite all the activities and reform programs carried out, Dr ‘Ana admitted disappointment in the outcomes.
Its been asked that in terms of its education reform, whether Tonga has really moved forward, and whether there are concrete evidences of significant progress; improvement in terms of students’ achievement?
‘The honest answer,’ Dr ‘Ana said, ‘is that despite all the investments and the various initiatives, programs and interventions, and despite all the assistance and support we have received… we still cannot give an unequivocal ‘yes’.’
The Minister said that the data they have indicate they have not moved very far. An instrument that measures early grade reading ‘show that 70% by Class 3 are still unable to master the reading skills expected at that level.’
Dr ‘Ana says that the same figures show up in the tests for Class 4 and 6 in literacy and numeracy.
‘Most worrying of all is that we appear to be regressing instead of improving,’ she said.
Probably the most revealing statement by the Minister is to do with teacher/student relationships in the classroom. She places the key to effecting better classroom results on retraining, or better yet, the reforming of teachers.
‘The biggest challenge that Tonga is facing in education,’ she said, ‘is not limited funding or ill-trained human resources, but poor attitude and lack of professional commitment. If we can raise teachers’ and staff’ morale, and ethical behaviors… I believe we could make real differences in the educational outcomes of students in Tonga.’
