The Australian High Commissioner Dr Lachlan Strahan alongside the Permanent Secretary MEHRD, Dr Franco Rodie and the New Zealand High Commissioner, Georgina Roberts recently attended a roundtable with representatives from Save the Children Solomon Islands, World Vision Solomon Islands and Coalition for Education Solomon Islands - COESI.
These organisations were awarded grants in the first round of the Education Sector Support Program (ESSP) NGO grants.
Their projects seek to strengthen community support for children’s learning and increase provision of quality community-based early childhood care and education, in line with the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development’s (MEHRD) priorities.
Both High Commissioners were privileged to visit one of the participating schools, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary School in East Honiara to mark the commencement of the COESI Skul Blong Umi Lo Ples project.
The project aims to draw on local knowledge to encourage active participation of parents and communities in early learning to improve children’s literacy and numeracy skills.
Australia looks forward to visiting again once the project is in full swing.
The ESSP is a partnership between the governments of Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Australia to improve the quality of basic education accessible to all children in Solomon Islands. The NGO Grants Program is one element of the ESSP, which also provides funding support to MEHRD to deliver key priorities in line with the National Education Action Plan, as well as offering targeted advisory support.
Source: Australian High Commission Solomon Islands Facebook page