Australia Continues Funding Support for South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment
December 22, 2005

The South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (SPBEA) and the Government of Australia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under which the SPBEA will receive A$350, 000 annually for the next three years to support its core budget and program activities.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Suva today by the newly appointed SPBEA Director, Mrs Anaseini Kubuabola Raivoce and the Australian High Commission's Counsellor - Development Cooperation, Ms Stephanie Copus-Campbell.

Australia will support SPBEA's core budget, and also fund a number of activities that focus on the SPBEA multi-tier initiative to improve the quality of education in member countries through the use of assessment.

These activities are:

Assessment for Learning with the focus moving from the implementation of internal assessment into the national qualifications of member countries to assessment being used to improve the quality of education focusing on the classroom.
Establishing assessment research platforms in member countries through the Enhancing Assessment Research Capability Programme; and
Design Technology which aims to implement technology related courses as sustainable subjects at senior secondary level.
Australia and New Zealand each provide one third of the SPBEA's budget, with the remainder provided by the other member countries.

Speaking at today's MOU signing ceremony, Ms Copus-Campbell said Australia was delighted to be supporting SPBEA's vision of excellence in providing educational assessment and research services in the South Pacific.

Speaking on behalf of the SPBEA, Mrs Raivoce said "Australia has supported SPBEA continuously since its inception in the early 1980s. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding today is yet further evidence of the continuing interest that Australia has in supporting education throughout the Pacific. Various new initiatives at SPBEA will enjoy the necessary financial backing provided by this MOU, particularly the work on monitoring of standards at the primary level which is seeing an ongoing demand from the countries."

ENDS