People's Reps question impact of Tonga's new 'Look East Policy' [1]
Monday, August 23, 2004 - 14:58. Updated on Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 20:17.
From the House, Minute No. 30, Wednesday August 4
- Concern over a letter to the House revealing the salaries of directors of the Janfull International Dateline Hotel.
- A member argued that although the Hotel was a private company but people have the right to know about its operation.
- Debate started on the Bill for the Establishment of the Accreditation and Qualification Board Act 2004.
- Minister of Education gave a brief history of the development of education in Tonga
- A member queried the right of children between the age of 6 to 14 years to free education, and why there was an exception to the law and students have to pay at certain government schools.
- A member queried why Theological Institutions, which award doctorate degrees, were outside of the jurisdiction of the Board.
- Concern over the government's Look East Policy and its impact on the social, economic and the politics of Tonga.
- Concern over the possible interference with the board, by authority in higher places.
- Disagreement over the composition of the Board.
In Legislature.
Minister of Police ... queried about the a letter from the Janfull International Dateline Hotel, presented to the house which he thought was a misuse of parliamentary privilege for a member to get information about the salaries of directors of the Hotel.
Speaker ... elaborated on how it was not proper for a member of parliament to probe into the affairs of private companies.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... asked the Speaker for an opportunity to speak on the matter, because he did not think that the hotel was a private company. He said that the people have a right to know what was going on in the Hotel. He said that board directors were hiding behind the fact that the hotel was a private company.
Speaker ... asked for the discussion on the private company issue to be discussed at another time.
The Legislature dissolved into the Whole House Committee and the acting Chairman of the House Noble Tu'i'afitu took his chair.
Chairman ... called for proceedings to start with the Bill for the Accreditation and Qualification Board Act 2004. He called on the Minister of Education to give a brief summary of the Bill.
Minister of Education ... said that the first Education Act for Tonga was in 1921 which was later amended and improved in 1974 and that remained to be the Education Act for Tonga until today.
He stressed the importance for the House to enact the Bill in order to establish the qualification required by professionals, lawyers and doctors before they can operate in Tonga.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... wanted to know what were the diffculties that the Ministry of Education had encountered over the years that called for the drafting of this new Bill.
Minister of Education ... said that after Prince Tungi returned from university in 1941, the Education Act of 1921 was still in used. In 1974 when Prince Tungi was King the Education Act of 1974 was enacted and it was allowed to remain flexible and therefore a Regulation was never enacted.
He said that when the Bill for the Qualification, and Accreditation Board Act and the Regulation for the 1974 Education Act was enacted it would complete the legal requirements for the administration of Education in the country.
'Isileli Pulu ... wanted to know if the 1974 Education act was ever amended by the House, because there was nothing in that act that concerned High Schools. He also told the House that he contacted the Association of Directors of Education and asked if they were consulted about the new Bill, and they said they were never consulted.
Minister of Education ... said that the Counsel for Education had been advising the Minister on the Bill, and overseas experts from New Zealand helped with the drafting of the Bill.
Minister of Justice ... said that the 1974 Act dealt with all levels of schooling, even though it was more specific on primary schools and he stressed that it required all children between the age of 6 and 14 years must go to school.
He said that Bill that was before the House dealt specifically with education at the tertiary level, and therefore he did not think there was any need for consultation with representatives from colleges and high schools.
'Isileli Pulu ... wanted to know if the 1974 act was ever amended by the House.
Minister of Police ... said that it was not proper for the member to ask such a question because he was talking about things that had already been done, and that the House was not a class room for questions to be answered.
Chairman ... said that there was a need for issues to be clarified.
Peauafi Haukinima ... asked the Minister of Education to talk about the state of education in the country between 1882 and 1921.
Chairman ... said that that would be a long and unnecessary presentation to be made, but revelation would be made during the course of their debate.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... asked the Minister of Education to clarify the objective of the Bill which said that the objective was for the registration of qualifications for post-secondary Institutions. He wanted to know what would happen then to institutions that offered technical training and also high school education.
Minister of Justice ... said that the term post-secondary Institutions should have been post-compulsory education.
Fineasi Funaki ... ask for clarification with regards to the post compulsory education age of 14 years and over. He said that 14 and over was still high school age and yet the bill was supposed to be for tertiary level.
Minister of Education ... said that primary education for children between 6 and 14 years in Tonga, is free, compulsory and circular.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... wanted the Minister to confirm what he had just said that the primary education for children up to 14 years was free.
Minister of Education ... said that with government primary school education was free from Class 1 to Form 2, even in some cases where the students may be older than 14 years. But he said that parents have to pay if they sent their children to the government-run Tonga Side School.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... wanted some clarifications because the law said one thing and the Minister was saying another, that there was an exception.
Minister of Education ... said that compulsory education ended at Class 6, disregarding whether the child was 10 or 11 years old.
Sunia Fili ... said that the Bill was for the formation of a board to administer qualification and accreditation of tertiary education, but he questioned why theology institutions were not included in the jurisdiction of the board. He said that there was a growing number of people with doctorate titles that were awarded by these institutions and it had been publicised in the region and worldwide that exceptionally there were many people in Tonga with doctorate degrees. He suggested that theology institutions should come under the jurisdiction of the Board.
Minister of Education ... said that there was a government decision to remain outside the jurisdiction of the Board. He said that to uphold religious freedom these theological institution were allowed to carry out and look after their own qualification and study program.
Sunia Fili ... said that if the Bill would become an Act it would create a lot of confusion. He had his doubt that the minister would be able to enforce the law. With regards to the teaching profession he said that there was a shortage of qualify teachers.
Minister of Education ... proposed for the House to proceed and pass the Bill. He said he would not be able to enforce the law once it passed, he said he would have mercy on some private school which did not have qualified teachers.
'Isileli Pulu ... moved that if the Minister could not enforce the law then the Bill should be withdrawn.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... wanted to make an amendment to the Clause relating to the authority of the Board. He wanted to stressed that once the Board approved on a certain educational direction, no one else would come along and change the decision of the Board.
Minister of Justice ... said that it was properly be better for the clause to remain as it was because even the Board would have the authority but it would work in consultation with other educational institutions to set educational directions and programs.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... pointed out that Tonga was moving away from Western ideals and embracing Communist China, and he said that it would be possible for the studying of the Chinese language to be made compulsory in Tongan schools.
Minister of Education ... said that the Chinese language was already taught at the Tonga High School.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... said that that was what he was talking about. He wanted to know who told them that they should teach Chinese, because the people of Tonga did not want to have any relationship with a communist country.
Noble Nuku ... pointed out that Tonga's growing relationship with China was a natural phenomenon, because of evidence that China would be a world economic power.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... said that the change in Tonga's foreign policy would change a lot of things in the country including Tonga's education program, and he wanted the Board to remain autonomous and that no one would just suddenly come along and change the curriculum of the Ministry of Education.
Fineasi Funaki ... told the House that the reason why Tonga was establishing a closer relationship with Communist China was because the political structure of the two countries was very similar.
'Akilisi Pohiva... told the House of how during the early 1990s a stigma was put on him and the former Catholic Bishop Patelesio Finau, that they were trying to introduce communism into the country. He said that Tonga was a Christian country and the people did not want anti-god people coming into the country.
Minister of Health ... expressed his concern that if the Board would be given the ultimate power then no one would have the right to appeal against any of their decisions.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... said that the Minister of Education was fully aware of his concern with the authority of the Board. He said that most recently the Minster opposed the establishment of a new institution but a higher authority exerted its power.
Minister of Education ... said that a decision was made and that was it. He reminded the member that the 21 century has arrived and that Karl Marx who started communism has died.
'Isileli Pulu ... asked the Minister of Education to clarify the problem that he encountered ,which 'Akilisi was referring to.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... said that the problem was because the Minister could not resist the order that he must give $50,000 to this new Institution.
Minister of Education ... said that what has been written has been written.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... said that similar problem would be faced by those they would select to be members of this Board and that was why he moved to be written into the Act that the Board has the final say.
Finiasi Funaki ... said that the motion by the member would clash with Clause 20. He supported the point that was raised by the Minister of Health about the right to appeal. He suggested for the member to reword his amendment and instead of saying that the authority of the Board was final, it should say that no one should interfere with the decision of the Board.
Chairman ... said that to say not to interfere did not sound very gentleman-like.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... agreed with the Chairman and supported the move that no one should interfere with a decision passed by the Board.
Minister of Justice ... did not think there was any need to worry about outside interference with the Board because the board was autonomous as it was stated in the Bill.
After lunch the Speaker dissolved the House into the Whole House Committee and the Chairman of the Committee took his chair.
'Akilisi Pohiva ... said that he had to repeat what he said earlier about the direction of things in the country. Of the decision to move away from the West to the East because the Deputy Prime Minister was present in the House. He said that everything would change, economy, religious beliefs, and even our political structure, because he believed that government was stuck with China for a very long time.
He said that unless they secured the power of the Board the direction of education could be set by someone else other than the Board, so he suggested that they should add on that no one should interfere with the Board.
Chairman ... moved for the proceeding to move on to Clause 4.
'Isileli Pulu ... expressed his concern over the process of the drafting of the Bill which he said was not ever presented to the Association of the Directors of Education.
Minister of Education ... said that the most important body consulted was the Councils of Education advising the Minister, and he said that a draft of the Bill was presented to the Council. He said that the members of the Association of Directors were also members of the Council and they knew what was going on.
He said that the members of the Board would be made up of three from government ministries, two from non-government schools, and one would be the chairman of the board who would be selected from the three representatives from government ministries.
'Isileli Pulu ... expressed his concern over the three to be elected from government ministries because they have to get the right people to be in the board. He said that even the Ministry of Education did not have a person there who was qualified to be in the board, the two qualified persons have left because of dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Education and were working in Fiji.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... said that most of the schools in Tonga by non-government organisations he suggested that they should have three representatives in the board, and only two from government.
Minister of Justice ... said that the chairman of the board would not be selected from the three government representatives.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... said that the Minister of Education had just said that chairman would be selected from the three government representatives.
Minister of Justice ... said that that was not stated in the Bill, and with regards to a balanced representation in the Board he said that three would be from government and three would be from non-government organisation.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... disagreed with the Minister, because the CEO of the board could be selected from a government organisation.
Minister of Justice ... said that there were more government institutions who were involved in tertiary education than non-government organisations. He also disagree with the member that the board would be made up of three government representatives and two non-government representatives. He said that there would be three government and three non-government. He said that the CEO would be non-government, because if the person selected was a government officer he or she would have to resign from government.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... disagreed with the Minister that there were more non-government than government tertiary institutions and that there was nothing in the Bill which said that the three government representatives have to resign from government in order to become members of the board.
He said that the Board would be controlled by the Cabinet and it would not be an autonomous body as the minister has said. He said that it had happened in the past when a civil servant, became the CEO of a board as it was with RTA ,and then later the civil servant returned to a post with government.
Minister of Education ... said that there would be three representatives from government, two could be selected from the Chamber of Commerce, and from FITA and the CEO could be an outside expert.
Minister of Justice ... expressed his disagreement with Dr Feleti Sevele over the fact that a civil servant who became CEO with RTA was still a civil servant.
He said that the person he referred to was on secondment to RTA and therefore was not a civil servant.
Dr Feleti Sevele ... said that the person was still a civil servant.
Debate continued with the membership of the Board until it was closed for the day.