A Government delegation led by the Minister of Education, Honourable Dr. Derek Sikua is attending the World Education Forum (WEF) 2015 in Incheon, the Republic of Korea this week (from the 19 – 22 May 2015) at the invitation of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Members of the Solomon Islands Government delegation include the Chairman of Parliamentary Education and Human Resources Training Committee, Hon. Nestle Giro, Government Protocol Officer, Silas Fakani, Permanent Secretary/Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD), Dr. Franco Rodie, Undersecretary National Education Services/MEHRD, Ms Constance Nasi, and UNESCO National Commission Desk Officer/MEHRD, Ms Christina Bakolo. Mr Paul Kakai Jnr, National Coordinator of the Coalition of Education Solomon Islands is also attending and is representing the Solomon Islands NGOs at the forum.

UNESCO is organizing this milestone event, which is being hosted by the Government of the Republic of Korea, jointly with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the World Bank.

The World Education Forum 2015 is focusing on the achievements and shortfalls, since 2000, in the implementation of the Education For All and education-related Millennium Development Goals.

The objectives of the WEF 2015 are to; (1) Take stock of achievements and shortfalls in the implementation of the Dakar Framework for Action and the education-related Millennium Development Goals during the period 2000-2015; (2) Agree on a joint position for the education goal and targets in the post-2015 development agenda, which will be adopted by UN Member States at a Summit in September 2015 and (3) Agree on a comprehensive Framework for Action to guide and support the implementation of the future education agenda.

This Framework for Action aims at mobilizing all countries and partners around an ambitious global goal and targets, and proposes ways of implementing, coordinating, financing and monitoring the 2030 education agenda – globally, regionally and nationally – to ensure equal education opportunity for all.

Thereafter, the 2030 education agenda will be referred to as Education 2030.
Dr Rodie said that the World Education Forum 2015 is not only timely from the Solomon Islands context but also relevant in terms of the priority areas that MEHRD would like to drive the next development of education in our country.

MEHRD is currently drafting the country’s Education Strategic Framework for the next 10-30 years as the existing one will be concluded at the end of this year.

And in doing so, Dr Rodie stated that MEHRD will consider and incorporate the education goal and targets in the post-2015 development agenda, as well as the Framework for Action to guide and support the implementation of the future education agenda in the country.

Dr Rodie added that the 2030 education agenda recognizes that education is at the heart of the sustainable development agenda and essential for the success of all sustainable development goals.

The overarching goal is to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” Dr Rodie said from Incheon today.
MEHRD will implement a set of strategic approaches which are recommended to better inform actions to meet the challenges of delivering on a vastly more ambitious universal goal and agenda, and to monitor progress.

In addition, indicative strategies specific to each of the targets are described under each target. It should be noted that these evidence-based strategies are nevertheless quite generic and will require appropriate adaptation to different contexts.

The Honourable Minister of Education and his delegation will return to Honiara on the 25 May 2015.

 

Source: Press Release, Government Communications Unit