Interesting stats on ICT literacy among Fiji's teachers

Ian Thompson, e-Learning Fellow at the University of South Pacific in Suva, writes:

We recently completed an training session for 40 Primary School teachers around Suva whose schools have the One Laptop per Child laptops. ... After the initial donation of 1,000 laptops, MOE purchased an additional 2,000 devices last year. 75 primary schools (many of them rural or remote) now have a set of these laptops. 

The Indian Prime Minister, in his visit to Fiji last year, also donated 2,000 of the Ubislate tablets and they will be integrated into the program (which is now called the One Device per Child project) 

The interesting stats we wanted to highlight come from the pre-training questionnaire we asked the teachers to fill in.

• All identified them selves as being computer literate

• less than 10% said they were beginners. More than half had 10 or more years experience and everyone used a computer at least once a week or more.

• 100% used Facebook and 90% had email accounts.

• 95% (all but one) of the teachers said they used computers at home.

• 85% said they use the internet to find teaching resources and to do research.

• One third of the teachers said that more than half of their students know how to use computers.

We realise this is not a typical sample as the teachers volunteered to attend the training and they all came from the greater Suva area. (The aim of the training was to train at least two teachers from each school so they could train the other teachers).

However, we were surprised by the level of ICT and information literacy. 

Do any other Pacific Island countries have any information (or even a general feeling) about the use of computers by their teachers?

Vanuatu Govt slams lack of aid coordination, says food running out

Port Vila, Vanuatu, March 19, 2015 (AFP) - Vanuatu's government has hit out
at aid groups swarming into the cyclone-ravaged Pacific nation over a lack of
coordination which it said cost precious time getting help to those in need.
   The scathing comments came as Agriculture Minister David Tosul warned that
the struggling subsistence-based country would run out of food in less than a
week, pleading for rice, biscuits, seeds, tinned protein and cash to help ship
them in.
   Relief agencies have been battling logistical challenges in the sprawling
archipelago with a lack of landing strips and deep water ports hampering their
efforts to reach distant islands and get a better grip on the full scale of
the disaster.
   They continue to paint a bleak picture, detailing large-scale property and
crop destruction, shortages of clean water and fears of disease.
   Aid finally reached the badly hit island of Tanna on Wednesday, five days
after Severe Cyclone Pam roared ashore on Friday night, but many of the 80
islands that make up Vanuatu remain out of touch and without help.

Pacific urged to improve internet access and speed

Call for Pacific governments to improve internet access and speed | Australian Broadcasting Commission | http://t.co/I5ZRXkndPg

Pacific urged to improve internet access and speed

ab.co

A call for Pacific island nations to prioritise planning to bring their digital-age infrastructure up to speed.

Pacific disaster plan may influence global blueprint - SPC | Radio Australia

Pacific disaster plan may influence global blueprint - SPC | Radio Australia
Thirteen of the 14 Pacific Island countries in the region over the course of the last four, five years really have made commitment in some shape or form in terms of policy, in terms of legislation, to bring together their efforts in climate change and ...

Fiji's return to forum on agenda | Pacific Islands Forum

THE New Zealand Government is reiterating New Zealand's potential for Fiji to return to the Pacific Islands Forum.

Prime Minister John Key said the return of Fiji to the forum was likely to be a topic of conversation on his tour of Samoa, Tonga and Niue along with a delegation including opposition MPs and newly appointed Ambassador for Pacific Economic Development, Shane Jones.

"Providing Rear Admiral (Ret) Voreqe Bainimarama holds democratic and fair elections ... then the view of New Zealand is it would support a return of Fiji back into the forum," he told Radio New Zealand.

The Prime Minster said he was visiting the islands now, instead of attending this year's Pacific Islands Forum as it was too close to September's general election.

Mr Key said other matters set to be discussed were recent severe weather events in Tonga and regional fisheries issues.

Fiji was indefinitely suspended from the forum on May 2, 2009.

"Pacific Islands Forum" http://bit.ly/Ssr5vV

Reporting Pacific Business – What is the biggest story?

By Sean Dorney

When I began my journalistic career – admittedly it was a fairly long time ago, 1971 – if somebody had been talking about something that had happened 32 years previously they would have been speaking about 1939, the year the Second World War broke out. That was 12 years before I was born and, to my mind back then, almost pre-history. So my apologies to those who might think 1982 – that’s now 32 years ago – is some time way, way back in the distant past. But, to me, it was a really significant year in relation to our topic in this final session of the 2013 ADB Pacific Business Media Summit: “Reporting Pacific Business – What is the biggest story?”

Digital Islands: The Pacific's ICT Revolution

Danielle Cave at the Lowy Institute writes:

The Pacific Islands region is in the midst of an information and communications technology (ICT) revolution that could have profound implications, particularly for democratic governance and the region’s development. Approximately 60 per cent of Pacific Islanders now have access to a mobile phone and this figure continues to climb. Mobile Internet is leapfrogging obvious barriers to Internet access such as geographical remoteness, financial cost and availability. A boom in mobile phone use has facilitated the rise of social media in the Pacific.

Download Danielle's informative snapshot here.

UN to enshrine universal health coverage

UN set to vote in favour of universal health coverage: UN general assembly vote could put access to quality and affordable healthcare for all on a new development agenda. The UN general assembly is expected to vote in favour of a resolution for universal health coverage on Wednesday, reflecting a growing international consensus on the importance of affordable access to healthcare. Supporters of the resolution, which is backed by the US and the UK, say the UN vote would be a step towards putting universal health coverage in the post-2015 development framework. In 2010, the US president, Barack Obama, forced his bitterly fought healthcare reform bill through Congress, bringing near-universal coverage to Americans.

Australia promotes gender equality in Tonga

Australia's Marles pushes gender equality message in Tonga: During this year's Pacific Islands Forum summit in the Cook Islands, Australia unveiled plans for a 330 million US dollar initiative to help women in the Pacific

Informed public is a powerful weapon of change

MIKA KELEKOLIO writes in the Samoa Observer :

"For far too long the public have been left in the dark when it comes to knowing what their public officials are up to, what government ministries and agencies are doing and whether they are acting within their mandate. The consequences of allowing these organisations and agencies to operate unchecked can lead to corruption, financial malfeasance and public safety risks." 

APEC, who cares?

ABC's Elizabeth Jackson reports: The recent Pacific Islands Forum meeting in the Cook Islands is attracted almost unprecedented international interest because the American secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, decided to attend. It was widely regarded as an attempt to counter China's increasing influence amongst the island countries of the Pacific.

Read more: APEC, who cares?:

Fiji targets neediest kids for OLPC launch

The Republic of Fiji has announced a five year plan to invest in ICT for education with OLPC at the centre of its program. At a launch in Suva last week officials from the Ministry of Education announced it has chosen three disadvantaged schools in Suva to kick off its OLPC pilot program:

• Nabua Sanatan Primary
• Navesi Primary School
• Draiba Primary School

Bank of South Pacific donates 1000 laptops to Pacific children

Joins regional coalition as OLPC Oceania’s Lead Private Sector Partner
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, April 17, 2012 – One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and the Bank of the South Pacific (BSP), the region’s leading bank, have announced an exciting strategic partnership to advance South Pacific education, kicking off with a donation of 1000 revolutionary ‘XO’ laptops to Pacific children.

Children doing what comes naturally in Patukae
Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. 

As its first act in the new role of Lead Private Sector Partner for OLPC Oceania, BSP will donate the educational computers to children in three OLPC project schools in the Solomon Islands and Fiji. In coming months, BSP plans to provide more support for children in Papua New Guinea as it spearheads private sector support for OLPC.

OLPC’s Regional Director for Oceania, Mr Michael Hutak, thanked BSP for its generosity and welcomed the new partnership as a breakthrough for Pacific education. “With BSP’s strong corporate leadership in the Pacific, its large regional branch network and its strong commitment to community participation, we look forward to a long and effective partnership, not just to our ongoing mutual benefit but more importantly to the long-term advancement of Pacific education.”
BSP Group Chief Executive Officer Mr Ian B Clyne said the new partnership was a perfect fit with the Bank’s corporate social responsibility goals and would broaden the reach and impact of the BSP Children’s Foundation, complementing programs such as BSP’s widely-praised BSP School Kriket program. The partnership continues BSP’s commitment to Pacific development and follows a recent Fiji$100,000 donation to emergency relief efforts following the devastating floods in Fiji.
As Lead Private Sector Partner, BSP will join the regional initiative OLPC Oceania, which is a coalition of national governments, educators, donor agencies, academia, the private sector, civil society and community organizers, all working to assist Pacific Island countries to establish the OLPC concept in schools. Mr Hutak said BSP will bring much- needed private sector expertise and know-how to the Pacific initiative.
Currently there are OLPC projects running in 10 Pacific countries, with approximately 10,000 laptops being used by children in 50 schools. Across the globe OLPC has distributed more than 2.4 million laptops to poor children in 40 countries.
Some 200 laptops donated by BSP’s Children's Foundation will be deployed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in the Solomon Islands in remote Marovo Lagoon, the site of the first Pacific OLPC project in 2008. The remaining 800 laptops will be distributed in two demonstration schools in Suva, Fiji, in partnership with Government of Fiji and the University of the South Pacific. The schools will be where Fiji's teacher and technical training will occur.
BSP plans to promote the establishment of similar demonstration schools in Port Moresby and will work with the PNG Govt, the World Bank and other partners to scale up OLPC in PNG.
BSP has also agreed to facilitate the collection of public donations to OLPC Oceania projects both online and through its branch network.

Read the Media Release for more info and media contacts.

Aid donors key to bridging Pacific digital divide

Radio New Zealand International broadcast the following feature this week on the OLPC Pacific programme:

And yesterday RNZI published the following story.

Aid donors key to bridging Pacific digital divide

The regional head of the world wide ’One Laptop Per Child’ programme, says key Pacific donor agencies must become involved and help Pacific countries to bridge the growing digital divide.

Michael Hutak says information communication technology is at a crossroads in the region and laptops are an incentive for children to engage with schools. 

He says donors such as the New Zealand aid programme and AusAid need to realise ICT can radically change the education landscape for the better and he says their involvement would make the scheme sustainable.

“The amount of money going into the Pacific in terms of aid is huge. Personnally I’d like to see more of it directed not just to OLPC but to ICT and to digital media and to the digital revolution in particular, to ensure that Pacific kids don’t get left behind.”

Mr Hutak says the United States Government has shown a lot of leadership in the North Pacific, with strong support for the programme in the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, where the scheme is being evaluated as its becomes established.

Solar charged Haiti project points to OLPC's renewable future

On her excellent blog, Laura Hosman documents an inspiring collaborative project in Haiti which installed solar power to charge 500 XO laptops in 8 days! (Plus a year of planning!):

We did it!! We successfully carried out our first solar powering deployment in Haiti, August 3-11! The EFACAP school in Lascahobas now has the capability to charge 500 OLPC XO laptops with a direct current (DC)-only solar system. According to our research and to OLPC, our installation has the distinction of being the world’s largest single-school solar laptop charging deployment!

Read the full post at ICT Views from the Field.