An Opposition Member of Parliament has raised concerns over the Government's focus on tertiary education.
The concern was raised by the Member of Parliament for West New Georgia and Vona Vona Lagoon, Western Province, Hon. Peter Boyers in Parliament last week during the discussion on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2008.Hon. Boyers expressed that basic education should also be of focus and cannot be ignored.
"With an enormous population growth, if we are going to create social justice for our people, we have to make sure that our young growing population gets a free basic education. It is not good to promote a process of tertiary education when at the end of the day it will create an elitism position and suffering at the other end of the scale for our innocent children," says Hon. Boyers.
Hon. Boyers continued to say that birth rate will continue to grow dramatically and how the country manages its funds is a huge responsibility.
Mr Boyers then said that an informed population is a cooperative population and we all want our country and our younger generation educated.
According to NZAID (beehive.govt.nz), only 20 percent of children complete Primary School, the lowest rate in the Pacific Region. Most of the students are pushed out after Grade Six, and only 4% stay on to Form Six.
Known contribution to high levels of illiteracy are the inaccessibility to educational facilities and financial problems. Culture often plays a vital role to lack of education as well.
SOLOMONTIMES.COM WITH SIBC