A MAJOR Pacific regional conference, the “Vaka Pasifiki Education Conference” will be held in the Solomon Islands, 5-6 July to co-inside with the Solomon Islands 2016 independence anniversary celebrations.
The conference theme is “Education For What? Revisted.”
The conference is jointly organised by The Institute of Education (IOE) of the University of the South Pacific, the Solomon Islands National University and Victoria University of Wellington.
Last week, a conference team from the USP Institute of Education concluded a visit to the Solomon Islands to prepare for the July conference.
The team was led by Solomon Islander Dr Kabini Sanga of Victoria University of Wellington and Dr Mo’ale ‘Otunuku of the IOE.
A site visit of Kukum Campus of SINU was made and discussions were held with the SINU senior management team and with the Ministry of Education, Human Resources Development.
In welcoming the visiting team, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) of SINU, Professor Basil Marasinghe expressed his gratitude for including SINU as the host of this important Pacific education conference.
This will be the first Pacific regional education conference to be held at SINU.
According to Dr Kabini, the conference theme is important for Solomon Islands as “education for what?” was the defining question for our current education system.
The July conference is an opportunity for Solomon Islanders to debate and reflect on the “education for what?” question as posed by The Bugotu report of 1973.
Solomon Islanders are encouraged to participate at the conference.
In further support to our national university, a research workshop was held at SINU to help lecturers prepare with needed skills to present papers at the conference.
According to Dr Jack Maebuta of IOE, “As many SINU lecturers as possible should share their research at the conference. In this way, we can make this conference a truly Solomon Islands conference.”
Dr Kabini Sanga
Victoria University of Wellington
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