(contenu disponible en anglais uniquement)
Literacy intervention videos aim to strengthen education in Vanuatu
As the region’s education systems prepare for the administration of the 2025 Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA), the Pacific Community (SPC), in partnership with Vanuatu’s Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), and the Teachers to Leaders (T2L) team, used the PILNA 2021 data to produce videos, both in English and French as a PILNA literacy intervention strategy for Vanuatu.
The PILNA TV literacy videos aim to support teachers with teaching strategies that will help improve Vanuatu’s literacy scores in the 2025 PILNA cycle.
“The release of educational videos to teachers in Vanuatu has the potential to enhance teaching effectiveness, promote professional development, promote active learning, address diverse learning needs, and improve student outcomes and experiences,” said MoET’s Basic Assessment Coordinator, Winnie Timatua.
Torika Taoi, SPC’s Team Leader for Large Scale Assessment, stated that this intervention work was based on the recommendations for teachers from the 2021 PILNA Regional Report and the PILNA Vanuatu report.
“The education videos are in English and French and will model best practices in teaching strategies such as assessing knowledge of the content area and reading comprehension skills, modelling various concepts and activities for the students to complete to demonstrate their understanding,” said Taoi.
In the PILNA 2021 cycle, which was conducted by SPC, challenges were identified in the areas of reading comprehension across the region. This meant that students at the primary school level struggled to read or understand their syllabi text.
Primary school teacher and the PILNA TV Presenter, Pamina Tari described the videos as an approach that is different from what they normally use in classrooms and “really helping the students with their reading, especially reading comprehension and vocabulary and the text information.”
She further explained the importance of introducing these teaching strategies to students at the primary school level.
“If they teach them very well at the beginning of their early childhood, they're going to do well in future, as they approach higher levels of education,” said Tari.
Timatua also added that the introduction of educational videos can effectively contribute to the improvement of Vanuatu's education system, “by improving access to quality education, upgrading the new learning experience, supporting teachers, promoting multilingualism, reducing the cost of resources, and preparing students for the demands of modern technology.”
The PILNA TV videos aim to bridge the gap between the issues identified in the PILNA 2021 cycle analysis and the literacy levels the region wants to achieve that align with the global Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets. Similar videos were produced and launched in Fiji earlier this year with the same aim of improving the literacy standards in the country.
