A girl outside her school. Credit: World Bank/Tom Perry

Partner since:

Total grant support: US$17,572,469

Grant eligibility:

  • Multiplier
  • System capacity
  • System transformation

Partnership Compact

Priority: Improve literacy in early childhood education and primary schools, and numeracy in secondary schools, with a focus on male students, boys and girls from poorer households and children with disabilities.

Other key documents

Coordinating agency: Australia High Commission - Tonga

GPE Team lead: Daisuke Kanazawa

Transforming education in Tonga

Regional strategy: PacREF

In 2018, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s Education Ministers, in which Tonga participates, adopted the Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) 2018-2030: Moving Towards Education 2030.

PacREF outlines a transformative and sustainable regional education agenda aligned with global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4, and Education 2030: Incheon Declaration on Education for All Framework for Action.

The 12-year framework promotes equitable access to high quality education by all Pacific Islanders with a view to enable their countries to effectively deal with the development challenges facing the Pacific region.

The framework also encourages inclusivity and opportunities for equal access to informal, primary, secondary and tertiary education and training. It focuses particularly on education quality and the importance of working cooperatively in the region and beyond.

While Pacific countries integrate what they consider as the relevant parts of the PacREF Program into their national education policies, programs and practices, the Framework also provides a means for identifying and understanding similarities and differences across the region. It offers organizing mechanisms for sector planning, reporting and collaboration, and give development partners with an understanding of where the region’s resourcing priorities lie.

The PacREF has 4 key policy areas to maximize gains in student learning outcomes and well-being:

  1. Quality and relevance: Provide all learners with a safe and supportive environment, within which they are offered high quality learning opportunities that are meaningful, valuable, inclusive and future-focused.
  2. Learning pathway: Provide all learners equal access to multiple and seamless pathways and modalities of learning that will allow them to meet their full potential.
  3. Student outcomes and wellbeing: Make sure all learners acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attributes to enable them to contribute to their families, communities and to nation building.
  4. The teaching profession: Support and empower teachers through opportunities for continuous development, shared understanding and accountability.

PacREF is divided into three 4-year phases to facilitate in-depth program review by the education ministers.

Result story

Tonga: Building a resilient education system to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and natural disasters

In Tonga, mitigating the impact of the pandemic on learning begins with building a resilient education system.

Grants

(data as of March 19, 2024)

 
  • Type: System capacity

    Years: 2023 - 2025

    Allocation: US$40,000

    Utilization: US$12,939

    Grant agent: Save the Children Australia

  • Type: Program development

    Years: 2023 - 2024

    Allocation: US$200,000

    Utilization: 0

    Grant agent: WB

  • Type: System capacity

    Years: 2022 - 2025

    Allocation: US$700,000

    Utilization: US$480,486

    Grant agent: Save the Children Australia

  • Type: Program implementation

    Years: 2021 - 2024

    Allocation: US$14,997,510

    Utilization: US$887,272

    Grant agent: ADB

Knowledge and innovation

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