Shefa Province children have low literacy and numeracy rates

A Shefa Education Forum has identified that children from Vanuatu’s southern Shefa Province have low literacy and numeracy rates including in reading and writing.

The Vice Chairman of the Shefa Day Celebration 2021, Fred Samuel, confirmed this during Shefa Day celebrations at the Korman Stadium in Port Vila.

Mr Samuel said the low literacy and numeracy rates had showed up in both urban and rural Shefa and were very disappointing.

Despite the capital Port Vila being in the Shefa Province, Mr Samuel said the province always rated only fourth out of six provinces in the country’s annual provincial education results.

“Some of the issues that we find have been teachers’ [and students] poor performance in schools,” Mr Samuel said.

“We have to work to address and improve literacy and numeracy rates for our future younger generations.”

He said the Shefa Education Forum had discussed various ways of improving the results.

He said these included increasing levels of parental support; ensuring teachers were qualified to provide high-quality teaching; and that teachers used best practices and methods to improve learning.

Mr Samuel said the forum also identified improving school health facilities and infrastructure as being good ways of lifting literacy and numeracy levels.

Mr Samuel said the committee had also discussed future Shefa Day celebrations including agriculture and business forums.

The Shefa Day Celebration Committee this year raised around VT5 million through sponsorships and fundraising for the province’s annual celebration.

Mr Samuel thanked the people of Shefa for attending the 2021 celebrations, especially for their participation in a parade from Saralana Park to the Korman Stadium in Port Vila.

In other parts of Vanuatu, people from Shefa Province also celebrated Shefa Day.

In Luganville on Santo, people from Shefa held a custom ceremony thanking the Sanma Provincial Government and chiefs for having them live in Luganville Town and in Sanma Province.