Pacific students
p. 39 · Read in the full issue
Good news for Pacific students
NOBODY can argue against the proposition that the future of the Pacific Island states or any nation, for that matter rests with the education, training and skills of their
young people.
It’s not surprising then that New Zealand, which has as much interest as anyone in seeing the countries in its neighbourhood develop and prosper, is keen to advance educational standards in the region. More than 30 per cent of New Zealand’s Overseas Development Assistance (or aid, as it used to be called) goes on education and training or human resource development, in the jargon of the day.
In dollar terms, this roughly equals the amount New Zealand gives for budgetary support, emergency assist ance for cyclones and the like and donations to voluntary agencies. It is about double the sum given to the next
highest sector, agriculture. It’s only natural then that New Zealand aid officials are anxious to make sure the money is used to the best effect. The days when there was so much aid cash available that its use did not have to be monitored minutely if they ever existed are long gone. In the current economic environment, every dollar is up for scrutiny.
New Zealand may be experiencing what the economists call an upturn. The government tells its people that after years of painful restructuring which caused record unemployment and budgetary cutbacks in every sector, things are coming right. That doesn’t mean the country is flush with funds and the aid vote remains under as much scrutiny as ever. Many, perhaps the majority of, New Zealanders are not convinced the pain has been worthwhile. They cannot yet see the benefits. It is in this context that New Zealand aid officials have conducted no fewer than five searching reviews of their education and training assistance policies, which currently consume about $35 million worth of aid funds, to the South Pacific over the last year.
One of the failings shown up in these reviews was in the so-called South Pacific (Tuition) Fees Scholarship Scheme, founded in 1989 to pay the secondary school and tertiary fees of young islanders who would benefit from an education in New Zealand. Designed for private students not those nominated by their governments it provided $6500 for secondary school fees and $13,000 to meet university and polytechnic charges. It sounded good, but it was awkwardly managed the New Zealand vice-chancellor’s committee administered it while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which inherited it from the Department of Education, funded it. In the confusion, nobody knew whether it was actually achieving what it was set up to do.
One of the reviews found it was not. It revealed that students, initially delighted to win the scholarship, soon
discovered it was not all they thought it would be.
It wasn’t that they were misled just that they had not realised that living in New Zealand was somewhat different from life at home. Many found themselves staying with relatives fine on the face of it, but often not ideal studying conditions. Some found that as economic conditions worsened in New Zealand, as they did over the last few years of recession, their relatives could no longer afford to keep them.
They found it hard to devote them selves to their studies. (Having to look after their relatives’ children while the parents went out to work, for instance, was not conducive to good pass marks.) As word of the difficulties got around, a number of students offered scholar ships declined to take them up. Officials here admit one-in-10 “no shows” in reality it was higher. Worse, those who
arrived and stayed, started working illegally to maintain themselves, and that did not make for good relations in a country experiencing nine to 10 per cent unemployment.
Not that the scheme was a total failure. About 44 per cent of those who took it up were women and a third went to students seeking technical skills - prime targets in New Zealand eyes because the further education of women and the acquisition of technical qualifications are seen as of crucial importance to the development of the island states.
The upshot of the review was the formation of a new programme, called “Aotearoa Scholarships”, which will replace the clumsily worded and administered South Pacific (Tuition) Fees Scholarship Scheme. It is still directed at private students who are prepared to make a contribution to their own further education. The so-called “study awards”, awarded to candidates nominated by governments for study here, who can have all their expenses paid, are still available.
But the most significant change in the new scheme is that it will pay $BOOO for living costs on top of tuition fees.
Successful candidates will still have to pay their air fares to and from this country, but for the first time they will get assistance with day to day living costs. This figure set at roughly half way between the $5OOO a resident New Zealand student can get a loan for living costs and the $lO,OOO allowance offered in a full “study award”, should be enough to free them from the worries Pacific Island students have suffered in the past.
It should permit them, for instance, to board out or go into a student hostel instead of relying on relatives, with all the obligations that involves. About 150 new Aotearoa Scholar ships should be available next year. The accent will be on skills-based training or undergraduate study consistent with the human resource development needs of the students’ home country. D