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Based on what you told us is important in Education to support the success of your families and communities during the 2018 fono, we came up with 5 potential areas of focus for the next 10 years.

The 5 potential areas of focus for the next 10 years:

  • Call out and end racism and discrimination in education and value our Pacific cultures and languages
  • Target support to give Pacific learners better opportunities, including: grow bilingual options and build skills for education, employment and community life
  • Support families to design education opportunities together with teachers, educators and leaders
  • Get more Pacific teachers and leaders and value and support the ones we already have
  • Change the Education System’s definition of success to reflect our Pacific people’s diverse dreams and goals

We came back to ask you whether we got this right, whether anything is missing or if you would change anything. You told us:

  • A focus on racism and discrimination should be its own category and that all teachers becoming better teachers for Pacific learners needs to be more visible in the focus areas.
  • A recognition of ethnic specific and regional specific needs should be more of a focus. There should be actions for specific regions and a focus on ethnic specific groups where appropriate.
  • English language assessments (such as IELTs) are still a barrier to getting more qualified teachers in Early Learning Services.
  • You need to see a stronger focus on career planning and pathways, involving parents in subject choices and increasing learners’ exposure to many different career options.
  • You want action around supporting positive mental health and wellbeing and addressing financial barriers and poverty.
  • Leadership and governance is important to making changes, particularly in schools and this should be considered in the design of the Action Plan.

We have published summaries of feedback from each fono around the country, which have been shared with attendees for comment before publishing, and we will use all this feedback to make changes to the five key shifts above. 

The finalised five key shifts, along with the first set of actions to make change will be launched as part of the Action Plan for Pacific Education in early 2020.

2019 fono feedback summaries - [Powerpoint file 582KB]