Vanuatu is a small island state, with a widely scattered population across the 83 geographically diverse islands of the archipelago. Despite a small population of more than 300,000 people, Vanuatu has a high linguistic density, with more than 110 distinct languages, three official languages, and a dual language education system. Delivering key and quality public services in such an environment with low resources and a poor tax base is a major challenge. 

The education sector of Vanuatu is the largest service sector in the country. It is expecting to expand its focus on areas such as skills education, however, gaps still remain: Issues of children’s literacy and numeracy, many boys are underperforming and disparities between urban rural students' performance persist, education for people with disabilities is not reflected within the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) budget, and schools are struggling to enrol students with disabilities due to a lack of funding for classroom assistants and a lack of learning resources for students with disabilities.  

Through this project, Kolisen Blong Leftemap Edukesen (KoBLE) will advocate for more accessible, equitable, inclusive, and quality focused education. KoBLE will further lobby for increasing support to education for those continuing to be displaced by natural disasters. 

The project is designed through three strategies that shall realise the overall objective:  

• Increase the awareness and implementation of GAPSED+ framework (a framework for gender and equity analysis) to improve the provision of equitable education. 

• Strengthen organisational sustainability and capacity. 

• Conduct advocacy to improve education policies.

The project is a continuation of the previous project phase, implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. The objectives, outcomes, and activities will thus constitute an extension of previous achievements, based on lessons learned and input from KoBLE’s network, members, and stakeholders. 

Some main activities of this phase will include: 

• Advocacy visibility and policy efforts promoted via various media channels, such as social media and newspaper articles. 

• Attending regional and subregional workshops to learn and share capacities on learning collaboratives and thematic lessons. 

• Develop a GAPSED+ handbook for regional actors to refer to during and after trainings. 

• GAPSED+ workshops will be adapted to a train-the-trainer style, and regional actors across 6 provinces will be trained to deliver GAPSED+ workshops. 

• Host network meetings for coalition members, to provide them with the opportunity to provide feedback and develop new skills. 

• Develop spotlight reports on SDG4 and budget analysis report on education in Vanuatu. Findings and recommendations shall be presented to coalition members and government officials. 

KoBLE will draw on its already established relations and involve a broad range of stakeholders, such as the MoET, to ensure the sustainability of the project results. Further, its membership in educational and technical working groups will help KoBLE achieve sustainable results, as well as ensure advocacy influencing has an impact within these spaces. 

A previous phase of the project was implemented between April 2022 – December 2023. The current project is part of the EOL extension phase of 2024-2026. Read more about the previous phase of the project here.