Australia and Education in the Pacific: What is relevant and who decides?

Education plays an essential role in defining national culture. Therefore, aiddonors involvement in recipients’ national education systems is always likelyto be controversial. In the case of the Pacific Island Countries, thissensitivity is increased by the fact that there are significant divisions ofopinion within the countries, notably between those who emphasize the roleof education in preparation for participation in the global economy andthose who are fighting to preserve their local cultures from extinction.Whilst optimists argue that it is possible to do both by creating globalcitizens who are deeply grounded in their own cultures, realists suggest thatwith very small groups this is simply not possible. Both sides accept thestatistical evidence that the small group cultures of Melanesia have failed indelivering even basic literacy to all as compared with the nation widecultures of Polynesia. Meanwhile, Australia pursues an explicit neo-liberalagenda of providing education to the islanders to make them employableacross the globe. This paper explores some of the issues in this debate,including differences of approach between AusAID and NZAID.