Primary science in the South Pacific

Abstract

In 1997 a project entitled Science Education in Pacific Schools (SEPS) was initiated to help improve the quality of primary science in twelve countries in the South Pacific region. All twelve countries were members of the University of the South Pacific (USP) and comprise Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji from Melanesia; Niue, Cook Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Samoa, and Tonga from Polynesia; Nauru, Kiribati and Marshall Islands from Micronesia. Many of these nations are made up of numbers of islands making communications extremely difficult between and within countries. For example, the nation of Tokelau can only be reached by a ship journey of 36 hours from Samoa.