Tonga's Ministry of Education made out a Grant Payment of over $900,000 pa'anga to schools under the Tonga Education Support Program in June.

Dr Uiliami Fukofuka the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Education said on August 3 that payments were made under the School Grants Program of the Tonga Education Support Program (TESP).

He said that the official payment of grants to schools under this program would not start until next year but this was just piloting the process to see how it would work.

TESP is a US$14 million funded program launched in November 2005, financed by New Zealand and the World Bank for five years.

Schools Grants

The School Grants for selected primary, middle and secondary schools will finance their overall development needs with an estimated US$2.8 million made available beginning this year for the whole term.

Uiliami said that the payment of grants to schools on June 28-29 was made out in one lump sum to each eligible school.

The payments were made out to all Government and Non-Government Primary Schools. Then all Non-Government Middle and Secondary Schools throughout Tonga for the Form 1-2 level. This is except for Mormon Church Schools who did not want the grant.

In the Primary Schools payments of grants were of $500 pa'anga per school plus $30 pa'anga per head. For Form 1-2, all Non Government Middle and Secondary Schools each received $2,000 pa'anga per school and $100 pa'anga per head.

Uiliami clarified that in the non-government school recipients included the Ocean of Light and 'Atenisi Form 1-2 level.

These grants were made in two parts, to buy school materials for teachers and learning materials for students as well as funding the improvement of a better school environment, which included fixing of classrooms, bathrooms and other much needed repairs.

The CEO added that the grant was put into each school account at the Westpac Bank of Tonga and the Ministry will conduct an end of year inspection of each school recipient and level to see whether the quality of education has improved.

Financing

The CEO added that the funding of TESP is made in three parts: which is a loan from the World Bank of TOP $2 million pa'anga, an NZAID funded Trust Fund of TOP$8 million managed by the World Bank and a NZAID direct grant of TOP $12 million.

The two partners NZAID and the World Bank have agreed that New Zealand would put a significant portion of these funds through the bank in a Trust Fund.

The Trust Fund supports the schools grants payments. And the second and larger part of NZAID funding will be used to support reforms in teacher education, curriculum reform and student assessment according to the Tonga Education Policy Framework and using the Government of Tonga systems.

This includes the curriculum reform program that was signed earlier in February to develop a new school curriculum for Tonga. The three-years contract was signed between the Ministry of Education and the UniQuest Pty Ltd of the University of Queensland.

Three components

The CEO also clarified that TESP has three components, which is to improve equitable access to universal quality education for all children in Tonga up to the Form Two level, to improve access and quality of post basic education and to improve the administration of education so that the quality of educational performance is improved.

He added that the official payment of grants to schools in 2008 would be made in two payments and will continue every year until 2010.