We have now completed our four-day programme with 28 teachers from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The teachers who attended represented 20 schools across the primary and secondary sector. Seventeen of the delegates were from the primary sector and the remaining from secondary. Six of the delegates had previously attended our 2016 programme. Adding together the populations of these schools means that a total of 22,445 students, plus the staff and communities, now have a ‘Human Rights Champion’.
Our evaluation feedback from the delegates showed a clear progress in knowledge, understanding and confidence between the start and end of the programme. Only 39% of delegates rated their knowledge and understanding as good/excellent at the start. This rose to 100% at the end of the programme. Very promisingly, 100% of the delegates rated themselves as confident or very confident in delivering lessons on, and promoting, human rights.
The delegates identified many barriers to successful delivery, including and unsurprisingly: the current culture/customs; large class sizes; the lack of resources; and the need for Human Rights Education to be officially included on the curriculum. We will be meeting with Desmond Waita (ACoM Education Secretary) tomorrow to discuss the next steps for all stakeholders. We will make our full report available on our website as soon as possible.
Paul Dryden (Deputy British High Commissioner for The Solomon Islands) will also be at this meeting and has pledged that the British High Commission will do all they can to support the formal inclusion of Human Rights Education in the curriculum and education standards here in The Solomon Islands. We will be talking also to Simon Burton (Deputy British High Commissioner for PNG) and are hopeful for similar support to progress Human Rights Education in PNG.
We have been concerned to hear about the low literacy rates in The Solomon Islands. Combined with the very high ongoing population growth, this means that more and/or larger schools are needed, along with a greatly increased supply of trained teachers as a priority.
In addition to the weekday workshops, we held a one-day workshop today (Saturday, 23 March) at the request of the religious orders. This workshop was also attended by the representatives from the Mothers Union. Attendance was 24 in total. The religious orders represented were the Community of Sisters on the Church, the Community of Sisters of Melanesia, and SSF – the Franciscan Brotherhood. After some initial concerns about language barriers, we were able to deliver our planned programme with the help of Sister Veronica. We introduced human rights and human rights issues. Subsequently, we discussed human rights concerns in The Solomon Islands with a particular focus on gender-based violence and domestic violence. The programme was received positively and ended with some singing and dancing which was enjoyed by everyone.
Today (Sunday, 24 March) we attended the Liturgical Farewell service for Archbishop George A Takeli. It was attended by more than 1,200 people. He spoke about the need to ensure that we do not let economic and capitalist considerations prevent us from tending to the pastoral needs of the people. He referred to Luke (Chapter 13, Verses 1-9), “The parable of the barren fig tree”, to make his point that we must nurture and take care of others if we are to see fruit. We hope that the teachers with whom we have worked this week will nurture and grow the knowledge they have acquired and be supported in doing so by their schools and the education authorities.
We are now enjoying an afternoon off. After our meeting tomorrow we hope to enjoy some time looking around the craft market before making our final preparations for our journey home to The UK. We are all looking forward to being home and with our families again.
Lumitrifala lukim iu nekis wik. 😊
PidginPost 