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48 The Journal of Adventist Education • Apri l /May 2015 http:// jae.adventist.org

Seventh-day Adventist educa-tion in the South Pacific Divi-sion (SPD) continues to growsteadily in numbers and qual-ity, enjoying a reputation of

spiritual growth and strong academicperformance. SPD is comprised of Aus-tralian Union Conference (AUC), NewZealand Union Conference (NZUC),Papua New Guinea Union Mission(PNGUM), and the Trans PacificUnion Mission (TPUM), which servesFiji, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Is-lands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Niue, and Tu-valu. During this quinquennium, thetotal enrollments have grown from54,724 to 69,194.

tertiary educationSix SPD tertiary entities have signed

a Memorandum of Understanding inan effort to achieve greater cooperationand collaboration. Initial meetingshave shown the administrators’ willing-

ness to assist one another by sharingresources and increasing the opportu-nities for research.

Our tertiary-level schools have seenincreased enrollment and growth:

• While Avondale College of HigherEducation (Cooranbong, New SouthWales, Australia) progresses towarduniversity status, the “Avondale experi-ence”—fellowship, connections, sharedChristian experiences and compara-tively smaller classes—continues to in-volve high levels of service, both localand international.

• Pacific Adventist University inPapua New Guinea, which now in-cludes the campuses of Sonoma Col-lege on the island of New Britain andthe Atoifi School of Nursing in theSolomon Islands, has so many appli-cants that although it now requires fullpayment of fees on registration day,many hundreds of prospective studentsstill have to be turned away each year.

• Fulton College moved to a new lo-cation. General Conference President

Ted N. C. Wilson attended its inaugu-ration at the new site in February 2014.Administrators had expected that en-rollment would drop due to the reloca-tion; instead, enrollment increased to arecord level.

• Mamarapha College in West Aus-tralia, which provides excellent qualityeducation to the First Australian com-munities across the country and theTorres Strait Islanders in North EastAustralia, also reports record enroll-ments.

elementary and secondaryeducation

Papua New Guinea Union Missionschools continue to enjoy a reputationfor offering a warm and caring class-room environment and above-averageacademic results in the governmentexams. As a result, a number of govern-ment leaders have offered the churchan invitation to run specific govern-ment schools. Unfortunately, not all of

SteadyGrowth and Improvement

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these requests can be accepted due toshortage of staff.

Committed staff members dedicatethemselves to caring for the spiritualneeds of students. Allen Vavuso, wholeft school after grade 4 and now servesas a cook for the Jones Adventist Col-lege in the Western Solomons, con-ducts regular Bible study sessions forinterested students. In the past fiveyears, he has been responsible for morethan 500 student baptisms. Vavuso is

just one example of many staff mem-bers who go beyond the call of duty toensure that students are led to Christ.

The Australian Union Conference(AUC) undertook four significant ini-tiatives in 2014. With the onset of theGlobal Financial Crisis, the AustralianFederal Government’s stimulus pack-age resulted in AU$65 million in grantsbeing allocated for the building ofcommunity halls, libraries, science lab-

oratories, canteens, and general-pur-pose classrooms. With the use of vol-unteer labor and the careful spendingof these grants, AUC was able to erectmany excellent facilities and empowermany schools to achieve their long-term plans in a vastly shorter-than-expected timeframe.

The Encounter Adventist Curricu-lum Project has been completed. Thiswas initiated as a result of urgent callsfrom schools for a more relevant Biblecurriculum to address the changingschool demographic and the rapidlyshifting social context of young peo-ple’s lives. Adventist Schools Australiaand the New Zealand Pacific UnionConference collaborated to developthis valuable teaching resource, whichis being used to lead young people to agreater knowledge of the Scripturesand of a saving relationship with JesusChrist. Teachers in the British UnionConference are also using the curricu-lum, and it is being piloted in theNorth American Division.

The AUC has conducted regular ac-creditation of Adventist schools formany years now, but recently has devel-

49http:// jae.adventist.org The Journal of Adventist Education • Apri l /May 2015

Top: Avondale College of Higher Education students (Cooranbong, New SouthWales, Australia) involved in an evangelistic service project in Malaysia. Bot-tom, left to right: Barry Oliver, South Pacific Division president; Ted Wilson,General Conference president; Vuniwa Waisea, past president, Trans PacificUnion Mission (TPUM); and Glen Townsend, current TPUM president, at theopening of the new Fulton College.

oped a new approach to move thefocus away from external sources to in-ternal review. The Quality AdventistSchools Improvement Framework evalu-ates these areas: Adventist identity,learning and teaching, school improve-ment strategies, and community andpartnerships.

In this process, all AUC schools arerequired to engage in professional con-versations as they collect data, and toreflect on the strengths and weaknessesof their current practices in relation toeach component. Such conversationslead to ownership and consensus aboutappropriate strategies to improve cur-rent practice. Because the strategieswere developed by each school and itscommunity, they are leading to moresustained improvement.

A new Student Management andLearning System has also been devel-oped. Its goals are to fully engage stu-dents in their learning, and to provideparents with real-time information re-garding their child’s progress. Eventu-ally, this system will facilitate the shar-ing of learning resources throughoutthe Adventist Schools Australia net-work.

The Trans Pacific Union Mission(TPUM) spans a significant expanse ofocean with many island nations dottedthroughout. Despite the significantchallenges with transport, communica-tion, and navigating seven different ed-ucation systems, positive initiativeshave been achieved. Several groupsfrom TPUM have traveled to Australiaand New Zealand to observe how theseschools demonstrate special characteror ethos and classroom management.In spite of the cost, this has resulted insignificant development of local class-room practice. The knowledge gainedfrom these observations has provedvery valuable, not only to the partici-pants, but also to other teachers withwhom it was shared.

challengesDivision wide, Adventist education

is experiencing a number of challenges.

50 The Journal of Adventist Education • Apri l /May 2015 http:// jae.adventist.org

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Top: Joe Ponduk, PNGUM director of education (extreme right); Parliament memberHonorable Richard Maru, standing next to him, and other dignitaries at the groundbreakingceremony for a school to be built by the government and run by the Adventist Church.

Middle: An example of the buildings constructed by the Adventist schools in Australiafrom government grants.

Bottom: A line-up of some of the teaching resources developed for the Adventist En-counter Bible Curriculum Project.

As the system expands, it is becomingmore difficult to staff some of ourschools with Adventist teachers. How-ever, Adventist Schools Australia hasbaptized 16 non-Adventist teachers inthe past quinquennium.

Maintaining a strong Adventistethos and ensuring that staff membersunderstand and commit to the Ad -ventist worldview is also a challenge. Inthe upcoming quinquennium, we willcontinue to engage educators withinthe Adventist Schools Australia net-work in conversations about the Ad-ventist worldview and philosophy ofeducation through conferences andin-service activities.

While climate change is a matter ofdiscussion internationally, many PacificIsland states are already affected. Oneschool on the Sepik River delta inPapua New Guinea has had to relocateinland 3 kilometers due to rising oceanlevels. Kauma School, on Abemama Is-land in Kiribati, is facing a similar fate,as the highest point on the island is just1 meter above sea level.

The Pacific nations are experiencingconsiderable population growth. In theSolomon Islands, for example, popula-tion is predicted to increase by two tothree percent over the next 25 years. Al-ready, this represents the birth of a newclassroom of 50 students each day. Pro-viding the necessary infrastructure tomeet this challenge is nearly impossi-ble. Classes of 80 students per class-room are commonplace throughoutthe region. To meet the demand fornew teachers, the division is makingplans to develop a local teacher-train-ing program that will initially lead to adiploma in teaching.

plans for 2015-2020The SPD theme for the next quin-

quennium is “Empowering AuthenticAdventist Education,” which will in-clude five main objectives:

• Adventist Worldview and Philoso-phy. Reaffirming the Adventist world-view and philosophy of education,which will be achieved via conferences

and in-service activities.• Christ-centered Learning and

Teaching. Improved academic perform-ance, which will be implementedthrough the use of unique strategies ineach union and will also incorporatewhole-system programs, introductionof online learning and formal readingprograms for adults, as well as the shar-ing of learning resources.

• Community and Partnerships. Thishas just begun with the signing of theMemorandum of Understanding(MOU), but it will also receive addi-tional attention as SPD seeks to create amore vibrant and strengthened tertiarysector.

It will also include the introductionof the Faith Shaper resource aimed atreversing the heavy loss of young peo-ple from the church by working withthe homes, schools, and churches.

• Leading School Improvement. Thedivision’s structure and many of itspolicies are linked to a time when “onesize fitted all.” With the academic land-scape changing rapidly, our structures,accountability processes, and policiesneed to keep pace.

• Completion of the Pacific SecondaryBible Curriculum Revision. This ongo-ing project will be brought to comple-tion during the next quinquennium.

Ken Weslake, M.Ed.,is the Director of Ed-ucation for the SouthPacific Division ofSeventh-day Ad -ventists in Wah -roonga, New SouthWales, Australia.

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