5.6 The Case of Vanuatu

A. Context
B. Factors
C. Recommendations

A. Context

a. General

Formerly an Anglo-French Condominium, known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu gained independence in 1980. Like Cameroon, the country therefore has a dual colonial legacy, with obvious educational implications, though it is not formally divided into anglophone and francophone sectors in a geographical sense.

The indigenous population is predominantly Melanesian, but comprises a complex of numerous local languages and ethnic identities. In addition to English and French, there is also the local pidgin language Bislama, which though not spoken by all, acts as a lingua franca.

The country is also physically fragmented, being an archipelago of twelve major islands and numerous smaller ones. This inevitably affects national cohesion and the costs of educational provision. Like many small island states, while the economy of Vanuatu is inevitably limited and concentrated, the possibilities for survival, mostly on a basis of subsistence agriculture, are certainly apparent. Potential for diversification and development is another matter; these must be limited as are the employment prospects of the output of the formal education system. The per capita GNP p.a. is over $US500, which places Vanuatu in the middle range of developing countries.

With a population of only about 120,000 Vanuatu is by far the smallest, both economically and in terms of land area, among the six case study countries in this project.

b. Education

Since Independence, the Government of Vanuatu has been attempting to fuse the separate and differing anglophone and francophone systems of education into one national system with a choice of English or French as medium of instruction. Curriculum development for the six-year primary cycle is taking place for both language mediums in parallel so that ultimately there will be a single curriculum and materials will differ only in language.

Small village schools in some areas are feeder infant schools for larger upper primaries in more central or accessible places where boarding facilities are provided. In some of these boarding primary schools there are both English and French medium classes.

At the end of primary 6 there are selection examinations for entry to Junior secondary schools/first cycle of secondary education. There is at least one junior secondary school on most of the larger islands but some do not as yet go as far as Year 10. Senior secondary classes are centralised in Port Vila at Malapoa College and the Lycée Louis Antoine de Bougainville and entry is regulated by a selection examination at the end of the junior secondary cycle (Year 10). Facilities for technical education and the Teacher Training College are also based in Port Vila. There is a USP campus in Vanuatu, but most students follow pre-university and undergraduate courses abroad in New Zealand, PNG or at the main USP campus in Fiji.

The figures for girls' enrolment in primary schools vary according to region, as can be seen in Table 1. Banks and Torres in the north and TAFEA (Tanna and neighbouring islands) in the south have the lowest percentages. Percentages for Paama, Epi, Tongoa and the Shepherds are distorted by the smallness of the populations. Girls' enrolment in Efate where Port Vila is situated is consistently high throughout the primary cycle, as one would expect.

Table 1: Girls as % of Enrolment by Region and Class

	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	TOTAL
1. Banks/Torres	42%	52%	41%	39%	37%	44%	42%
2. Santo/Malo	49%	43%	41%	42%	48%	40%	45%
3. Ambae/Maewo	48%	47%	50%	45%	45%	45%	47%
4. Pentecost	45 %	53 %	47 %	45 %	43 %	47 %	47 %
5. Malekula	45%	46%	51%	46%	47%	49%	47%
6. Ambrym	49%	44%	49%	41%	45%	47%	46%
*7. Paama	53%	42%	58%	42%	51%	44%	47%
*8. Epi	41%	48%	54%	43%	46%	48%	47%
*9. Tongoa/Shepherds	47%	51%	46%	52%	56%	46%	49%
10. Efate	49%	48%	49%	47%	48%	47%	48%
11. TAFEA	46%	44%	46%	43%	43%	41%	44%
TOTALS	47%	47%	48%	44%	46%	45%	46%

(Based on 1989 figures supplied by the Ministry of Education).

School enrolment rates as percentages of the whole population and at the different levels vary greatly when considered in terms of urban/rural areas and by sex. Table 2 (Asia Development Bank, 1987) indicates clearly the disadvantage of rural girls.

Table 2: School Enrolment Rate 1979 (%) Based on the 1979 Census

URBAN	Age-group	Female	Male
	6 - 9	91.8	90.0
	10 - 14	86.4	90.8
	15 - 19	33.5	33.3
	20 - 24	3.8	4.2
RURAL	6 - 9	60.9	66.1
	10 - 14	56.1	75.0
	15 - 19	23.6	37.1
	20 - 24	2.1	6.6

(Source: Asia Development Bank, Vocational Training and the Labour Market in Vanuatu 1987).

Table 3 gives some indication of schooling by region and by sex, again from the 1979 Census figures.

Table 3: Percentage of ni-Vanuatu aged 6 years and over who had attended School by Local Government Region, 1979

Percentage Attended School

Local Government Region	Male	Female	Total
Banks/Torres	72.0	54.5	63.3
Santo	66.3	59.1	63.1
Ambae/Maewo	83.7	74.7	79.5
Malekula	78.5	75.0	76.9
Pentecost	68.0	59.5	63.8
Ambrym	80.7	75.4	78.2
Paama	90.0	82.3	86.1
Epi	83.0	76.5	79.8
Shepherds	89.7	86.3	88.0
Efate	88.3	88.5	88.4
TAFEA	62.0	41.4	52.2
Vanuatu	75.5	67.3	71.6

Source - R Bedford (Ed) Population of Vanuatu Noumea 1989, p 92)

Table 4 illustrates the common phenomenon of high numbers of female teachers in government/administrative centres (here Port Vila on Efate). Educational expansion in the 1984-89 period on Santo/Malo and in TAFEA has resulted in many more women teachers being employed but it is interesting that the latter region still has twice as many male as female teachers.

Table 4: Numbers of Teachers by Region and by Sex

	FEMALE		MALE
	1984	1989	1984	1989
Banks/Torres	15	11	31	31
Santo/Malo	57	100	66	80
Ambae/Maewo	41	29	53	59
Malekula	74	68	94	112
Pentecost	32	50	33	41
Ambrym	16	14	41	43
Paama	4	4	18	14
Epi	10	8	23	23
Tongoa/Shepherds	13	12	33	27
Efate	83	100	77	71
TAFEA	19	63	56	117
TOTAL	364	459	525	618

(Based on figures supplied by the Ministry of Education)

c. Primary Perceptions

The survey was conducted in a range of Primary 6 anglophone and francophone classes on three of the islands of Vanuatu: Efate, Espiritu Santo and Tanna. The urban samples were taken in Port Vila, the capital. The age-range was 8-15 years and altogether there were 112 girls and 115 boys involved.

A very high proportion of children help in the "gardens" (subsistence farms) in Vanuatu; only 5 per cent were never involved. Girls and boys appear to contribute equally in "garden" work, in fetching water and in going to market/shopping but the contribution of girls is greater (and statistically significant) in tasks such as caring for younger siblings, cooking, sweeping and laundry. The pupils generally agreed (93 per cent) that girls do help more at home than boys. Interestingly, despite the high involvement of pi-Vanuatu children in helping their parents, the percentage agreeing that they sometimes could not come to school because they had to do jobs for their mothers or fathers was one of the lowest in the survey (23 per cent). Many of the rural schools in Vanuatu are boarding establishments because of problems of distance and inaccessibility and it would seem that this factor may be instrumental in ensuring attendance during the week, even if not in promoting enrolment in the first place.

Over a third of the children thought that boys stayed on longer at school than girls and again a third thought that girls did not need to go to school as much as boys. Overall 18 per cent agreed that "Girls don't really need to go to school", but as in other measures of attitude, there were differences between the responses from the urban and the rural schools: only 11 per cent agreed in Port Vila but 20-24 per cent agreed in rural locations on other islands. Nevertheless, only Jamaica showed more positive attitudes than Vanuatu on this item.

Vanuatu has the highest percentage in the survey of children agreeing that they thought they would be leaving school at the end of the year and the lowest percentage saying that they would like to go to secondary school. Again there is an urban/rural difference within the overall figures and this again correlates with the literacy levels of the parents as perceived by the children.

The pupils themselves belong to relatively large families (58 per cent with 4-6 children and 30 per cent with 7 or more). However, the low number of children stating an intention to marry was startling. Whilst 80-90 per cent of respondents in other countries intended to marry, in Vanuatu (with the exception of one school) only 30-40 per cent planned to do so. Perhaps as the average age of marriage is relatively high, such an eventuality has less reality for a Primary 6 pupil in Vanuatu than it does elsewhere. Rural pupils planned to have larger families than did urban ones but boys and rural boys in particular, planned to have more children, especially male children, than did the girls. The rural boys also had more negative attitudes towards girls' education, as one might expect.

Overall in the results of the survey there is a strong contrast between pupils in Port Vila and those in rural schools, especially those on other islands. The female pupils in Port Vila are expected to stay at school longer, and indeed it is accepted that they need to go to school as much as boys. Their mothers are twice as likely to be literate as mothers in rural areas on other islands. More of the girls in Port Vila expect to continue into secondary education. Their ambitions are higher and much more varied than those of their rural counterparts and they expect, like their mothers, to have fewer children when they marry. The situation for girls in rural areas appears to be more constrained by traditional attitudes.

The answers below are those of Rosina who is 12 years old and lives in a very rural and inaccessible part of Espiritu Santo. She is the third child in a family of seven and her parents are subsistence farmers. Rosina works in the "garden" every day and helps to prepare food. Her teacher considers her to be good at her schoolwork.

8. Que penses-tu des phrases suivantes? Tu es d'accord ou pas d'accord?

	Ö	D'ACCORD (C'est vrai!)
	x	PAS D'ACCORD (C'est faux!)
1. Les filles aident plus que les garçons à la maison			Ö
2. Généralement les garçons restent a l'école plus d'années que les filles			Ö
3. Aller à l'école est aussi important pour les filles que pour les garçons			Ö
4. Généralement les filles vent plus jeunes que les garçons quand elles quittent l'école			Ö
5. Ma mère est très attachée à ce que je vienne à l'école			Ö
6. En fait, les filles n'ont pas vraiment besoin d'aller a l'école			Ö
7. Quelquefois je ne peux pas venir a l'école parce que je dois aider mon père ou ma mère				x
8. Ça coûte très cher d'aller a l'école			Ö
9. J'aimerais bien que l'école soit plus près de la maison			Ö
10. Mon père est très attaché a ce que je vienne à l'école			Ö
11. Je pense que ma mère sait bien lire et écrire				x
12. Je pense que mon père sait bien lire et écrire				x
13. Je pense que je vais quitter l'école a la fin de l'année				x
14. J'aimerais continuer l'école l'année prochaine			Ö
15. C'est difficile de venir a l'école tous les jours				x
16. Je voudrais bien aller au collège			Ö
17. J'aime l'école			Ö

9. QUAND JE SERAI GRAND ..................

Quand je serai grand, j'aimerais être une maîtresse .

Je voudrais me marier	OUI		NON
Je voudrais avoir	0	enfants:
	0	garçons	0	filles

B. Factors

i. Geographical

The geographical factor is significant in Vanuatu as might be expected. Enrolment levels vary from island to island but generally decline from the core (Vile) to the outer islands (exhibiting a "core-periphery" pattern). Banks and Torres to the north and TAFEA*, to the south are the furthest from the centre and have the lowest enrolments overall and the lowest figures for girls. There is also however the question of remoteness and accessibility within each island: isolated, traditional villages in the interior have a different attitudes towards the role and status of women and the education of girls from those on the coast. Groups moving down to the coast from the interior to settle are making a choice about modernity and formal education.

[* TAFEA is the acronym for the southern islands (Tanna, Anatom, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwe).]

Vanuatu exhibits striking diversity in the differences between urban and rural areas and as 82% of the population lives in scattered rural locations, this affects a large part of the female school-age population. In parts of rural Santo for example, only 50% of the potential school population are recruited. Attitudes to girls' education are significantly different in the more rural areas, families are larger and access to school is more difficult.

This latter factor has been tackled by having feeder infant primary schools at local level with a junior primary (at P4, P5 or P6 level) receiving pupils as weekly boarders. Even so, rain or rough sea crossings from off-shore islands may still stop pupils getting to school on Mondays. The boarding factor solves some problems but there are implications when a child boards particularly when it is a girl: the production and help it would normally give in the household and "garden" (subsistence farming plot) during the week is not available.

The quality of primary education is said to vary from island to island (partly according to past and present mission influence). Few proceed to secondary school from Banks and Torres, for example. Access to junior secondary education is limited and uneven and at upper secondary level, even more limited.

At secondary level, Malapoa College and the Lycée Louis Antoine de Bougainville with their central location and prestige act as magnets, while some Catholic parents go for Montmartre College.

Rural children in our survey had very limited ambitions and girls in particular were surprised to be asked what they would do when they grew up: subsistence farming and marriage were all that they expected. There is however considerable migration between villages and islands, and to the two urban centres Vila and Luganville (Santo). The male circular migration of the past is increasingly being superseded by permanent migration of the whole family to the towns and ambitions are rising. There is however little migration overseas.

ii. Socio-Cultural

There is a great diversity of cultural traditions in Vanuatu but generally the status and power of women is low. Overall the system is patriarchal and only males can own land, be heads of family or chiefs, attend council and drink kava. A girl's traditional role in society is to help in the home and "garden", marry young and have children. She has far less importance than a boy, particularly in rural areas: symptomatically girls' ages are commonly reported as lower than in reality and those of boys as higher! The work of a girl in domestic and garden duties exceeds that of a boy and is therefore missed more if she goes to school. The tradition of early marriage has disappeared except in remoter areas and most girls now marry in their early twenties, so that female drop-out in Vanuatu is not closely related to marriage as in some countries. The system is however patrilocal on most islands and does involve the girls moving away, making her a poor investment for the family.

Bride-price and polygamy are still practised and in remoter custom villages, women live apart during menstruation. Fear of menstrual blood by men is still common on some islands. In these communities girls are far less likely to go to school than boys. Indeed, school and access to Bislama and English or French is seen by some girls as a means of escape from the traditional life-style.

There is a low incidence of extra marital or early pregnancy, but when it occurs it incurs societal displeasure, and for schoolgirls this means expulsion. There does not appear to be a significant problem of sexual harassment or abuse, and females can normally travel freely to school and college. There is no problem about girls boarding away from home. There is however a certain amount of domestic violence against women, often associated with drink on pay-day.

'Modern' female role models are not strongly developed, but are emerging in the business field such as in banking. Not surprisingly, there is a concentration of professional women in Vila. Some concern has been voiced in connection with discrimination involved in promotion to senior posts and award of scholarships. Traditionally females in Vanuatu did not speak in public but this no longer applies, though there is a legacy of a quieter style than that typical of males. Professional men are not keen on their wives catching them up in terms of qualifications, occupation and status. Despite the progress that is evident, activists do not accept that any fundamental change has occurred.

iii. Health

Fertility is high in Vanuatu, with an average of 5.1 surviving children per mother. Large families are found in both urban and rural locations but significantly more in the rural areas. Family size has implications for cost as far as schooling is concerned and also for early drop-out by girls to look after younger brothers and sisters. Women's mortality rate is higher than that of males and reflects the lower status, long reproductive cycle and heavy work load of ni-Vanuatu women.

Fear of AIDS, though not yet present in Vanuatu, is changing attitudes to sex. Secondary school heads run unofficial awareness campaigns, but there is no official teaching or Ministry literature on the subject as a matter of principle. The Vanuatu Council of Women has organised a drive on health education, particularly in respect of nutrition and vaccination, for village women.

iv. Economic

Rural children in Vanuatu do contribute to production at an early age by the work they do in subsistence "gardens". There is value for parents in the work of girls in particular in the home and "garden" and this militates to some extent against them being sent to school. Our survey shows however that children who are at school are less likely to be absent because they are needed to do jobs at home than in most of the other countries in the survey. This is perhaps an advantage of boarding facilities at upper primary level for rural children.

In the event of families finding it difficult to pay school fees or incidental costs, it is likely to be the boys rather than the girls who are chosen to go to school. Girls after all are useful at home, leave the family on marriage, and will not necessarily attract a higher bride-price by being educated. However, parents, especially urban parents are beginning to perceive the economic benefit of educating their daughters who are obtaining employment in the modern sector. It is easier for an uneducated man to get a job than an uneducated woman.

Girls' ambitions are more circumscribed than boys' by socio-economic background and rural locations. In a typical rural school girls will express a wish to work in a "garden" or to be a teacher (their only role models being their mothers and teachers). The boys however will typically have more ideas: mechanic, doctor, sailor, pilot, policeman, driver, carpenter, etc. Even in Luganville girls' ambitions are limited to teaching, nursing and working in a bank. Career ambitions at 12 years of age have a fantasy quality of course but clearly show the difference in attitude between girls and boys, as we have seen in the Introduction.

In a small developing country there is an obvious political danger of producing an "over-educated" population for whom there are no jobs, but there is some desire expressed by the children in the survey for more access to secondary education.

v. Religious

Western religion is not a direct factor, but there is a disparity in respect of its general influence on educational provision from the differential aspect of various Christian missions. Indigenous religion, as part of kastom has an obvious influence on traditional attitudes towards females.

vi. Legal

The Family Law Bill, drafted under the auspices of the Vanuatu Council of Women, is largely concerned with marriage and divorce but has not passed into law. The legal age of marriage for girls is 18 but they still marry younger than that in remote, rural areas. Overall however, the average age is over 18 and the age of marriage is not a problem as far as girls' education is concerned.

Chiefs tend to retain traditional power and sanctions are locally applied if necessary. On islands such as Tanna a policeman's job is said to be a sinecure. This does mean however that rape and violence against women, for example, may be dealt with by customary law and punishment may as a result be more lenient than it might be.

vii. Political/Administrative

There is thought in some quarters to be discrimination against the francophone sector, and a questioning of regional considerations in selection and placement at secondary level. Neither of these factors affects girls only.

Some respondents felt that women's movements may to some extent be counter-productive but some progress is being made in local politics. The Vanuatu Council of Women trains women on how to organise and run meetings. Such a programme is very important in boosting the confidence of women as they have not traditionally been involved in decision making.

viii. Educational

There is a rapidly developing rash of kindergartens in Vanuatu which seems to be closely linked to enrolment in Primary 1. This may be encouraging the enrolment of girls. The figures for girls are lower than those for boys in rural areas and outer islands but progress is being made at a good rate. Primary education is not compulsory but is approaching full coverage in Viia, if not elsewhere.

There is no subject differentiation according to gender in the primary school, but neither it seem is there much awareness in curriculum development and materials production of the issue of gender bias. This is particularly important in a society where the girls have traditionally been held in low esteem - some still bow their heads when passing boys, even at secondary school. Parents still consider it more important for boys to repeat a class and to stay on at school: a girl who needs to repeat a year will often be withdrawn. The numbers of boys transferring to Primary 6 from feeder schools on Tanna by far exceed those for girls. Indeed 55% of the pupils surveyed in Tanna thought that girls did not need to go to school as much as boys. In Vila only 13 % were of that opinion.

There are a limited number of places available for junior secondary education and children seem aware, judging from their answers in the survey, that few of them stand a chance of secondary education. The percentage expecting to leave school at the end of Primary 6 is the highest in the survey and the numbers wanting to go to secondary school the lowest. This may however be connected with the fact that for the vast majority going to secondary school would mean leaving home and boarding at the school.

There is no sex factor operating in selection procedures for secondary school but boys do seem to gain more places. Certainly boys are more assertive in the classroom, a point stressed by several interviewees and figuring quite strongly in survey responses. There is some gender stereotyping of options at upper secondary and higher education levels of the usual traditional views as to 'male' and 'female' fields of study/training.

ix. Initiatives

· Many initiatives in consciousness-raising and women's development are being organised by the Vanuatu Women's Council.

· Kindergartens are being developed by the private sector.

· Curriculum development schemes covering the whole of the primary curriculum with a view to uniting the anglophone and francophone sectors are underway.

C. Recommendations

Our major recommendations (not necessarily in order of priority) would be:

i. a project to further encourage the emerging kindergarten schools might help to boost female confidence at an early age;

ii. that, where necessary, incentives be increased, such as provision of free uniforms, books and meals, so that economic constraints on female participation in schooling can be overcome;

iii an exercise aimed at raising gender-awareness and gender issues amongst pupils at school level might help to improve attitudes to girls' education in rural areas;

iv. an exercise might be considered to raise the level of gender awareness in the curriculum development and materials production units, through some form of INSET for the professionals involved;

v. positive incentives such as more secondary scholarships for girls might be considered to go along with the present expansion of junior secondary places;

vi. that support be considered for developing boarding facilities for secondary school pupils of both sexes;

vii. that initiatives be encouraged to develop technical and vocational education for both sexes;

viii. as school provision is irregular for historical reasons and the geography of the country makes for difficulties of access, a school mapping exercise with a view to informing future plans might enable universal access even if enrolment remained voluntary. We have noted however that in TAFEA, for example, there is low enrolment but plenty of schools.

ix. projects in agricultural training and modernisation focusing on subsistence farming and aimed at women;

x. that credible women's movements, with track records of support for women and girls in need, be identified and considered for aid;

xi. that efforts be made to raise the level of male awareness of the community and family benefits likely to arise from increased participation of women and girls in educational and income generating activity.