Australia backs free education in Solomons

Updated April 12, 2010 16:58:54

Australia is backing attempts to make primary and junior secondary education free to all children in the Solomon Islands. Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullen, is about to travel to Solomon Islands, to discuss a plan. He's told Peta Donald from Australia Network, that he believes its a worthwhile project.

Presenter: Peta Donald
Speaker: Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullen

MCMULLEN: It is something that I regard as big priority for the development task globally. It's about making it possible for more kids to get into school and I am so pleased the Government of the Solomon Islands has made its priority because we could not do it if they did not want to do it and I am pleased that we've got the capacity to work with them on it and one of the most effective ways of investing in development is to get kids into and through primary and early stage high school, that's called basic education and this is a really very exciting development. I am very pleased about it.

DONALD: Do you think it will enable them to make it compulsory to go to school?

MCMULLEN: Well, there is not a bad attendance rate, participation rate in the Solomon Islands. It is not as if it is terribly low, but there is always some people who miss out and when the barrier is financial, it is the poorest who miss out, so it is a double, the country loses some talent, because some people don't get to go to school and the poorest people don't get a chance to break that cycle of poverty, so it is a good investment in terms of long term development, it's a good sign of a government in the Solomon Islands with intelligent priorities about the future for the country and in terms of breaking the poverty cycle, it's the best thing you can do.

DONALD: Do you know how many kids are not going to school at the moment, because they cannot pay the fees, the parents can't pay the fees?

MCMULLEN: It's hard to isolate that, because sometimes the people don't always explain why the kids are not going in terms of saying I am sorry, we can't afford it. Parents don't like to say that, but there is a small proportion and it's mopping up those last kids who don't get to go to school. That's one of the hardest tasks. The problems tend to be two fold, one of which we're dealing with now, that is financial. The other issue sometimes there are kids with particular disadvantages, particularly kids with disabilities who cannot get to go to school. We have got separate programs dealing with that, not just in the Solomon Islands, but right throughout the Pacific and Asia and that's a priority for us as well. But it's just not fair that a kid with talent cannot develop that talent because their parents cannot afford the fees, so this is removing one of those obstacles.

DONALD: You'll also be attending a meeting about the future of RAMSI, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. How do you see the future of the mission?

MCMULLEN: Well, all of the reports are very positive. I should not draw conclusions until the meeting, so I am actually chairing the meeting, so I should go and listen to the reports. But so far, all the reports on RAMSI over the recent years have been very positive. the Government of Solomon Islands is very positive, the government of all our other partners in the region are very positive. So I am optimistic this meeting will be almost routine, because we now have a fairly good knowledge and optimism about the future.

RAMSI has been a really successful regional initiative and we have been pleased to be associated with it, but we've been very pleased that all our other members in the region from the smallest countries, like Niue, to the biggest ones, like PNG. They have all been actively involved in this and we've been pleased to lead with them and we have had terrific support from other countries in the region.