THE Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) has begun a roll-out socialization of the Education Act 2023 to Education Providers in the Honiara City Council area.
Currently, 32 Education Providers including HCC Executives and school leaders are undergoing a four-day capacity building workshop at Multipurpose Hall, which began on Tuesday 3 and will end on Friday 6 September.
The training provides an opportunity for the participants to understand the changes to their role and responsibilities in compliance with the Education Act 2023 and its subordinate documents – the Education Legislative Framework.
Under the new Act, the role and functions of the Education Providers have changed significantly. This shift in the change of function has triggered MEHRD to ensure Education Providers are capacitated to undertake their new functions and responsibilities in compliance with the Education Legislative Framework.
The focus of the socialization sessions was on the Education Act 2023, Education Regulations, Education Funding Code, Learning Framework, Secondary School Certificate Scheme and Administrative Instructions for Provincial Coordination, Education Provider, School Board and School Communities, Schools, Early Childhood Education Centers and Teachers and Leaders.
Further to the training, the MEHRD officials running the training workshops will hold a dialogue with the participants on an Agency Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding between MEHRD and Education Providers that aim for better coordination of education services.
The initial socialization of the Act commenced with a series of internal socialization in 2023 targeting Directors, Managers, Chief Education Officers, Heads of Divisions and members of the Senior Management Team. This was extended to the state schools KGVI and Waimapuru National Secondary School during the earlier part of this year. This capacity building workshop will be extended to other provinces soon and these are funded under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Program through their agent, the UNICEF office in Honiara.
During the past two months other related activities supporting the socialization of the Act were conducted. These include Solomon Islands Education Management Information System training for all Education Providers and Honiara-based School Leaders.
The expected outcomes of the four-day capacity training are that the participants understand the key provisions and changes introduced by the new Act and be able to make decisions that are compliant with the new Education Legislative Framework – the key legislation is the Education Act 2023. Also, that there will be better coordination for better delivery of ECE, Primary and Secondary education in the provinces, and a better governance system is fostered for education in the provinces.
