MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Smith
Australia will provide $13 million to improve access to better quality primary school education for Muslim and indigenous girls and boys in the Philippines.
Today I visited the Baseco Elementary School in Manila where I announced Australia's commitment to work with the Philippines to improve education for some of the Philippines' most disadvantaged girls and boys.
Over the last four years Australia has provided critical assistance to the Philippines Department of Education to improve access to education for Muslim and indigenous children in Mindanao.
These programs are now being incorporated into the national curriculum and scaled up across the Philippines.
The new three-year program will expand teacher training, develop culturally appropriate curriculum and learning materials and build more classrooms, particularly in remote areas.
Through this three year project, schools will also implement programs developed with Australia, that teach Arabic language and Islamic values to encourage more Muslim children to join mainstream schools.
Australia is a long-standing development partner of the Philippines and one of the country's largest bilateral grant aid donors. In 2008-09 the Australian Government will provide nearly $110 million in development assistance, focusing on equitable economic growth, basic education and human security.
Australia is working with the Philippines to achieve Millennium Development Goal Two, which aims to ensure that by 2015 all children, girls and boys, complete primary school.