It takes a village to raise a child, an African saying goes. In Nauru, a new Learning Village is set to raise the quality of education for the country's tertiary students.
'We are looking at today's students as our future,' Dr Maria Gaiyabu, Secretary for Education in Nauru, said.
The Learning Village will be a campus designed specifically for youth and adult education. It will provide world-class facilities for Nauruan students to improve the quality of technical and vocational training and tertiary education throughout the country. A ground-breaking ceremony for the new campus took place in June.
The Learning Village's first phase is the completion of a new technical vocational education and training centre by the end of the year. The centre will run courses in automotive and marine technical training, complementing the existing courses in carpentry and textiles available at the Nauru Secondary School.
'This new mechanical workshop will provide a modern, capable facility for Nauruan students to undertake practical training and tuition in specific technical trades,' Mr Bruce Cowled, Australian High Commissioner to Nauru, said.
Since 2009, AusAID has contributed $1.5 million towards the centre's design and construction. Once complete, it will help to improve job prospects for Nauruans domestically and internationally, equipping them with the skills to take Nauru into the future.
The second phase of the Learning Village is building a library, audio-visual lecture theatre, classrooms and offices for the Nauru campus of the University of the South Pacific, and a new community centre. Earlier this year, AusAID made a contribution of just over $2.7 million towards this second phase.
The project is expected to be completed within the next two years. It is a joint initiative under the Partnership for Development, with the Government of Nauru contributing $1 million toward construction costs.
'We commend the Government of Nauru, and specifically the Education Department, for their ongoing support and hard work to see the concepts for these important pieces of social infrastructure taken through to the construction stage,' Mr Cowled said.
More information
AusAID's work in Nauru
AusAID's work in education
AusAID's Pacific program