Results for Education

Tonga Skills is raising awareness about people with disability and showing how inclusive programmes can impact their lives and improve livelihoods. Their stories were published in a booklet called ‘Stories of Change for Inclusive Economic Growth’ launched in Nuku'alofa on June 21.

Students in the Pacific (including Tonga) selected under New Zealand’s scholarship program in 2019, 2020, and 2021 may be able to start studying in New Zealand in 2022.

A new 15-year policy framework for Tonga education will be formulated under a joint Tonga-New Zealand project, launched this morning in Nuku'alofa. It aims to build an education sector that has more impact, and to put Tonga in a better position to attract development partner investment and support.

More than 300 graduates from two Government Tertiary Institutes received their certificates and diplomas on December 10, during a Combined Awards Ceremony.

Over 100 Early Childhood Education graduates from the Pacific community, mostly Tongans, received their certificates from an Auckland education provider on November 12.

Sustainable energy courses will be offered in the first semester of 2021 to support Tonga’s ambitious targets in achieving 70% renewable energy by 2030.

All students from Early Childhood Education, Classes 1-6, Forms 1-7, and Tertiary level will learn from home on June 30, for a one-day trial organized by the Ministry of Education and Training, using a variety of platforms, including internet, radio, TV and paper-based distance education.

An Australian doctor in Tonga warns that it’s too early for children to return to school tomorrow because we do not know for certain if the recent arrivals in Tonga were free of the virus or just had no symptoms. “If they did pass it to people they have contacted, those contacts may still be incubating the disease...To relax these restrictions now risks an outbreak of the disease, with potentially terrible consequences.” he said. There are no CoViD-19 tests here, so Tonga is “flying blind”.

As 2019 comes to a close, there is hope for a better year in 2020. There is also hope in the long term for a better future for the Kingdom of Tonga, a heavily indebted and aid dependent nation, struggling with an NCD crisis, poverty and an illicit drugs problem - not to mention the impending threat from climate change. Most of Tonga’s future workforce and leaders will be the output of the education system that exists now, an education system that appears to be flawed and broken. By Pesi Fonua.