Vanuatu/OER

Overview

Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, part of Melanesia. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. Europeans began to settle in the area in the late 18th century. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British-French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980. The population of Vanuatu is 227,574 (July 2012 estimate according to CIA's World Factbook). The capital (and largest city) is Port Vila.

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Vanuatu.

Education in Vanuatu

For a general description of education in Vanuatu see Education:Vanuatu.

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see Vanuatu.

The Vanuatu Ministry of Education (MoE) supports and has in its policy the introduction of ICT into schools. The Ministry, however, has not done anything substantial to realise this. There are more than 11,000 students in secondary schools and 45,000 in primary schools scattered through out the archipelago of 83 inhabited islands. Out of a total of 77 secondary schools (government, government assisted and private) only one offered the PSSC (Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate) computing studies course as of 2005. This is possible only through the school’s own initiative, not as a matter of government policy. Most of the other secondary schools (about 50) have computers that are mainly for administration purposes. There is no systematic uniform data program in use; each school uses what it has available. In secondary schools, there is a French assistance program funded by the French government that has put a database into French speaking schools. Regarding ICT use, any development that goes on in any of the schools up to now has been purely the initiative of the school administration. They are left to fend for themselves in financing, personnel and facility resourcing. (2)

Internet in Vanuatu

Broadband Internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants (2009) - Fixed 0.21, Mobile 0

Internet hosts (2010) - 1,347

Internet users (2008) - 17,000

Internet users per 100 inhabitants (2009) - 7.09

Computers per 100 inhabitants (2008) - 4.38 (3)

The level of computer ownership and internet penetration in Vanuatu is low. (1)

OER Initiatives in Vanuatu

The ICDE report on regulatory frameworks for distance education notes that the barriers to distance education in Vanuatu include the dual language population accessing education in their own language. The perceived lack acceptance of distance education as a legitimate mode of teaching is concerning, particularly given the challenges of a multi- island, multi-language, geographically spread republic. The lack of communications infrastructure presents further challenges for the development of a well-supported distance education mode of teaching. The most worrying issue may well be the lack of credibility of distance education as a teaching mode, perhaps substantially supported by the presence of non-accredited agencies. The impact of the reputational risk to legitimate distance education caused by such agencies could well hinder expansion and access to education for the population of Vanuatu. Although the ICDE report does not discuss OERs in relation to Vanuatu directly, these same problems which stand in the way of distance education may also stand in the way of the adoption of OERs. (1)

Institutional OER initiatives

The USP is actively engaged in OER for facilitating distance study in the Pacific region. One example is the release by USP of a free open resource on study skills in January 2010. This resource was developed as part of the EU-funded SideCAP Project. (3)

References

2. ReVica/VISCED page for Vanuatu (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Vanuatu)

3. ICDE Country Profile for Vanuatu (http://www.icde.org/projects/regulatory_frameworks_for_distance_education/country_profiles/vanuatu/)

Reports

1. ICDE Report: 'Regulatory frameworks for distance education: A pilot study in the Southwest Pacific/South East Asia region - Final report'. December 2011. Prepared by the Project Team (Team leader, Dr. Rosalind James) (accessed at http://www.icde.org/filestore/Regulatory_Framework/RegulatoryFrameworksforDEfinalreport2.pdf on Friday 13th July 2012)

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