In a powerful and emotionally charged statement, the Vice-Chancellor of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) has issued a bold call for educational sovereignty, criticizing the ongoing practice of outsourcing curriculum design to foreign consultants. His message, titled “Who Designs Our Future? A Wake-Up Call on Foreign-Led Curriculum in the Pacific,” has created widespread discussion across the region.
Citing a new $26 million climate resilience education project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Vice-Chancellor expressed deep concern that none of the funds are allocated toward building local curriculum development capacity or training national educators. Instead, the bulk of resources are directed to overseas consultants with little understanding of the lived realities in Solomon Islands.
“This is not just wasteful. It is insulting,” he wrote. “Curriculum shapes how our children see themselves, their land, and their future. When that curriculum is written from afar, it alienates rather than empowers.”
The Vice-Chancellor argues that knowledge is sovereignty, and calls for a fundamental shift in how education projects are designed and delivered. He proposes a new model where national institutions, cultural leaders, and local educators take the lead in crafting curriculum that is rooted in Pacific knowledge systems, rather than “copy-pasted from afar.”
With strong language critiquing what he calls the “colonial hangover in technocratic clothing,” the Vice-Chancellor urged development partners to fund capacity-building rather than perpetuate dependency. “Don’t just fund our schools. Fund our sovereignty,” he concluded.
His statement resonates with growing movements across the Pacific to reclaim control over education, policy, and development. Reminding the region and the world that resilience is not a foreign concept to be taught, but a living practice deeply embedded in Pacific life.
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Thoughts? Iumi stori
[Source: Prof. Transform Aqorau Statement via Facebook]
