A Review of the Work of Wan Smolbag Theatre Final Report Prepared By

Student Centred Teaching in the South Pacific: A Review of the Work of Wan Smolbag Theatre Final Report Prepared by David Small for NZAID, July 2007. 1. Introduction This is a report of a review of the Pacific regional programme of Wan Smolbag Theatre that received NZAID funding over the period 2003-2006. The report begins with a discussion of methods used to evaluate the project, which are consistent with those described in the initial proposal. It is followed by some preliminary remarks about the context within which WSB operates and about WSB as an organization. The next section contains the report’s key findings. These are discussed under the headings of method of work, materials, training, regionalisation and uncompleted or problematic components. Section six is a reflection on communication processes and relationships that have arisen during this assignment. The report concludes with a brief list of recommendations. 2. Methodology This review involved three weeks in Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomons. Prior to leaving New Zealand, the reviewer was provided by NZAID with the terms of reference for the review, the original project application and an extensive range of other relevant documentation. This included progress reports prepared by WSB for NZAID, the review conducted by USP consultants part way through the 2003-2006 project, and the written resources (booklets and other teaching materials) produced by WSB as part of the project, and many of the dvds produced by WSB for the project. The in-country phase of the review began with two days of orientation with Peter Walker and Jo Dorras in Vila, covering the context in which they were operating, the nature of WSB as an organization, the work they were doing, and the purpose and method of this review. Peter and Jo also went through much of the programme of meetings they had organised and explained their reasons for arranging the itinerary in the way they proposed it. Although the original programme they had prepared would have enabled the review to be 1 conduct satisfactorily, as a result of these conversations, agreement was reached on a few amendments to it and then, during the period of the review, a few other minor changes were made. The overall itinerary remained intact. That was: several days in Port Vila; a two-day visit to Santo accompanied by Bob Homu and Morinda Tari; a return to Vila and travel to Northern Efate; travel to Labasa with Jo Dorras and Annette Charley and (for some of the time) Megan McCoy; a short visit to Suva; and finally, a visit to Honiara, again accompanied by Bob Homu and Morinda Tari. During the in-country phase, an extensive schedule included formal interviews and informal discussions with people from WSB. Meetings were also held with many key people from outside WSB who are involved in formal and/or non-formal education and who have collaborated with WSB during the course of the work currently under review or were aware of this work. There was observation and/or participation in many workshops or classes in which WSB resources and methods were used; some where educators were being trained by WSB in the use of the resources and methods, some where people who had received training/resources were applying what they had learnt. A full schedule of these meetings and interviews is included in Appendix Three. In addition to these formal encounters, the review included many conversations with WSB members for a range of reasons including to clarify facts, to be briefed on WSB relationships with people to be interviewed, to discuss some of the review’s preliminary interpretations and recommendations, and to request meetings with additional people. WSB also made available whatever documentation was requested. Interviews and meeting were primarily in English but where informants had limited English (some francophone teachers and tourism operator in Vanuatu) or preferred to converse in French (Vanuatu Director General of Education), they were conducted in French. Most interviews were recorded on an mp3 recorder, but this was only as a back-up to the 107 pages of hand-written notes taken over the course of in-country phase of this assignment. Once back in New Zealand, some preliminary notes were made and, consistent with the methodological outline submitted in applying for this assignment, these were forwarded to WSB as the basis of a subsequent dialogue with them. A draft report was then submitted to NZAID in advance of a debriefing held with Megan McCoy at the NZAID offices in Wellington. This process of data gathering and interpretation provides a sound basis for the findings and recommendations made in this report. 2 4. The Context of WSB’s Programme: 4.1 Education and Development in Vanuatu, Fiji and Solomon Islands The three countries in which WSB has been operating in its programme currently under review face similar educational challenges. They have: • young populations and (excluding Fijian emigration rates) high rates of population growth; • under-resourced and poorly managed education systems; • high levels of functional illiteracy; • prevailing pedagogical practices in schools that are antithetical to currently recognised best practice and are not conducive to student learning1; • school fees and other associated educational costs that make schooling a significant financial burden on families2; • teaching workforces that are poorly paid3, with many unqualified teachers4, given little or no ongoing in-service education, and with (not surprisingly) low morale5; • school buildings and other facilities that are cramped, poorly designed and, not uncommonly, quite unsafe6; • overcrowded classes with unfavourable teacher:pupil ratios7; • curriculum materials that are outdated and often alien to the local context8; • high levels of failure and exclusion of students9; and limited opportunities for paid employment for school-leavers. 1 In a class of 8 year-olds in an isolated village school on Nguna Island, Vanuatu, wall charts for children to read were packed with detail of English grammar rules, such as “the present simple tense uses the base form of the verb which changes only for the 3rd person singular (he, she, my mother, my father, my grandfather etc…)”. 2 Moderate school fees in Vanuatu are 19,000 vatu (NZ$260) per term per pupil, roughly equivalent to the monthly earnings of a house cleaner. 3 Fijian teachers were all given a 5% pay cut in early 2007. Solomon Island teachers, even after recent industrial action secured wage increases, still earn as little as NZ$120 per fortnight. 4 Of 6,000 teachers in the Solomon Islands, as many as 1,000 have received no teacher training. 5 Absenteeism among teachers is not uncommon. 6 I was authoritatively informed that boarding school dormitories are routinely locked from the outside at night, even when these buildings are made of dried grass and have candles as their only source of light. 7 Class sizes of 50 are common. As many as 70 pupils per class is also found 8 Some teachers reported having to use textbooks on social issues that were published in 1982, and used pollution examples from Mexico and Tokyo, and deciduous trees in science. 3 There are, however, some signs of hope. Vanuatu’s new Director-General of Education, Daniel Lamoureux, is poised to launch a thorough overhaul of the country’s formal education system10. A Vanuatu Qualifications Framework is being constructed to increase access to quality technical and life-skills education. And there is currently11 an extensive review, reorganisation and expansion of pre-service and in-service teacher education at the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education. The high rates of educational exclusion coupled with limited opportunities in the labour market and a concentration of social problems facing adolescents and youth12 give non-formal education a heightened importance. 4.2 WSB as an NGO WSB was founded by Peter Walker and Jo Dorras, English expats who have made Vanuatu their home. Although WSB remains dependent on these two people in many ways (not least by their capacity to provide an effective interface between the organization and donor agencies), WSB’s growth and ongoing success have been achieved only by the consistent commitment of Peter and Jo to engaging and nurturing the talents of ni-Vanuatu people at every level and using developmentally sound methods of work. The ni-Vanuatu people involved in the organization are drawn overwhelmingly from the target demographic – young, unemployed or under-employed, a healthy gender balance and of geographically diverse origins. Considerable individual responsibility and collective power is devolved to these people with decision-making systems and processes for planning, implementation and evaluation that are as open and participatory as is practicable. There is an appropriate mix in WSB’s organisational culture of informality and flexibility where possible and hard-headed management and adherence to administrative systems where necessary. This capacity to make difficult decisions through sound processes was demonstrated by WSB’s ability to terminate the employment of a long-standing full-time member of the core group of actors/facilitators in a manner that generated remarkably little acrimony. 9 Of 8,000 children who enter Year One in Vanuatu, only 90 to 120 successfully complete Year 13, many of whom subsequently fail their tertiary studies. 10 The plan, currently awaiting Ministerial sign-off, will begin with eight task-forces focusing on curriculum, finance, management systems, teacher education, facilities, human resource development, decentralisation, and revision of education laws. 11 With NZAID and University of Waikato support. 12 Notable amongst these are teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, sexually- transmissible infections, violence and abuse, health issues such as TB and diabetes, and the looming risk of HIV/AIDS. 4 5. Findings: Preliminary Comments: WSB progress reports contain many comments (solicited and unsolicited) from people with whom WSB has worked – as participants, trainees, associated NGOs and representatives of government departments and other Pacific national and regional groups and networks.

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