Vanuatu has
one of the highest growth rates (2.9%) in the Pacific region, second only to
the Solomon Islands[1]. Almost
fifty percent of the population is 15 years of age or younger. Due to the
inadequate number of schools, many children do not have the opportunity to
attend school, and if they do they are lucky to progress beyond sixth grade as
at each ascending level of education there are fewer schools and teachers and
educational resources. Illiteracy is at 63% for males and 70% for females. So
at a young age opportunities are few in Vanuatu. Many parents encourage their
teenage children to move in with relations in the towns (Vila and Luganville)
and look for jobs to help pay for younger siblings to go to school and the like.
There are few job opportunities in the town however, as the educated ni-Vanuatu
tend to fill many of the openings, and the country cannot keep up with the
rising urban unemployment and subsequent crime. Housing, as the case of
Blacksands shows, is an issue with the increased pressure for space in Port
Vila. After the bright city lights, few youths want to return to the village to
a life of subsistence agriculture, and so are increasingly alienated from their
clan land and the activities that go on there. It is not uncommon for many
unwanted pregnancies to also happen in the town, where parental watch may be
absent. As a result a generation of town kids is being created who do not know
how to survive through subsistence and who do not know their own traditional
culture very well.
Urbanization
and modernization do not seem to have provided many opportunities for the
youths and rural people. Instead they appear to have aided the widening of the
gap between the educated elites and the less educated.
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© Hawaii Geographic Alliance.
August 2002. All rights reserved.