Tokelaun classes get system update
A 26-hour boat ride hasn’t deterred a Palmerston North-based educator from helping an island nation revitalise its education system.
Working alongside teachers in Tokelau, Diane Leggett says she’s seen teachers and children make leaps and bounds using new practices introduced by her team. She is the education leader at Tatai Angitu e3, Massey University’s School of Education business development unit.
In 2013, an Education Review Office assessment found the Tokelaun education system was badly outdated, based on a 1960s model from New Zealand, and some pupils were not reaching their potential, she said.
‘‘It was one teacher standing up the front of the classroom teaching to all children in single file desks, regardless of where their needs were.’’
Tokelau is a dependent territory of New Zealand, and from 2014 the Tatai Angitu unit has had New Zealand Government funding to help develop a new tailor-made education system.
Leggett has made four trips to the remote islands each year, catching a plane to Samoa, then taking a 26-hour ferry ride to Tokelau, and later, another two six-hour ferry rides to reach more schools. She is one of few visitors, so she is now well recognised.
The project has helped introduce more flexible, interactive learning and topics that reflect Tokelaun culture and life.
‘‘Tokelau is the first South Pacific country to be completely run by solar power, and global warming is important in Tokelau, so the children explore what that means. Each family owns pigs, so that’s another lesson,’’ she said.
An internet provider has agreed to subsidise the school’s internet, so the Tokelaun and Massey team can keep in contact throughout the year and pupils can use the internet.
Leggett’s next trip in July will help pave the way for formal education policy to be developed.
It is hoped the new programme will be fully in place by 2019.