HIGHLIGHTS
- Designing school cluster-based system for decentralised teacher professional development.
- Supporting rollout of revised Year 9 English curriculum and trialling revised Year 10 mathematics curriculum.
- Supporting the Ministry of Education (MoE) to identify children with disabilities and coaching teachers on inclusive teaching strategies.
PROJECT
The Australia Fiji Education Program (AFEP)
The Challenge
Fiji has strong school enrolment and attendance rates. Attendance is around 98% in primary school, 95% in lower secondary and 71% for upper secondary. Despite some progress, significant challenges remain in achieving strong learning outcomes. High rates of teacher attrition, due to labour migration, employment conditions and limited professional development opportunities, are an important contributor.
Socioeconomic and geographic factors also create disparities in education access and outcomes. Girls are outperforming boys in primary and secondary school, and boys are dropping out at much greater rates. Children with disabilities experience the most significant barriers to access and quality learning.
The Approach
The Australia Fiji Education Program (AFEP) works with the Government of Fiji under the Vuvale Partnership to support quality education delivery. AFEP seeks to improve student literacy and numeracy outcomes; provide safer, more resilient and more inclusive learning environments for students; and support MoE to strengthen policies, plans and data to enable improved, inclusive learning and student wellbeing.
To achieve this, AFEP provides technical and operational support across a range of areas, including supporting teachers to implement the revised curricula and contributing to more effective and inclusive school leadership and teacher professional development. AFEP is also working with the MoE to strengthen policies, plans and systems that underpin quality, inclusive education, including data systems, sector research initiatives and evaluations.
The Abt-managed Fiji Program Support Platform implements a portfolio of Australian Government-funded development programs, including APEP, in alignment with Fiji's national priorities and the Australia-Fiji Vuvale Partnership.
The Results
The expected end of program outcomes are:
- Schools, particularly trial schools, have improved student literacy and numeracy outcomes, supported by enabling policies, plans and data from the Ministry of Education.
- Heads of Schools and teachers, supported by enabling policies and data from the Ministry of Education, provide a safe, resilient and inclusive learning environment for all students, particularly in trial schools
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