Vanuatu’s Education System

Very few people in Vanuatu are lucky enough to attend university, let alone secondary school. As a developing nation Vanuatu is somewhat of an economically poor country and so many schools remain to be built and teachers to be paid. Education for all children is not a law, although it is an ideal. Unfortunately school is not free, not even government schools, although these are cheaper than private schools. Increasingly today, because of the government’s lack of funds for education, more church schools are being established to accommodate the growing demand for schools. Earning enough money for expensive school fees is a major concern for all parents. Oftentimes children drop out of school before sixth grade because their parents cannot afford the school fees (especially in the rural areas where the fees are sometimes paid in food to the teachers). Moreover, many girls might not go to school because, given the choice, parents tend to favour funding boys as Vanuatu society is mostly patrilineal.

Even if children are fortunate enough to afford school fees until sixth grade, more obstacles appear that prevent continuing education. As there are so few schools in Vanuatu there are national exams at sixth grade, and then again at Year 10 (the equivalent of the American sophomore year) to determine who can go on to the next level of education. There are approximately 6000[1] children who sit the class six exams, vying for 1000 places in secondary school. In Year 10 these children then sit more national exams competing for roughly 300 seats in Year 11. Then in Year 12 more exams are taken to get into Year 13, which is the final pre-university year. There are only 100 or so seats here. The development of an educated elite is the outcome.

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[1] These figures are the author’s guesstimates to illustrate the whittling down of educated ni-Vanuatu in the education system, and therefore should not be taken as fact.