COOPERATION FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATION IN THE PACIFIC
The Institute of Education (IOE) at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji has recently completed a desk study on “Teachers and Education in the Pacific” (TEP). The first of a multi-phase study, which is co-funded by ADB and AusAID, involves a desk study which concluded in a regional workshop that was hosted by IOE in December 2007. A total of 13 country reports were disseminated and discussed during the workshop. This article reviews the main findings of the desk study and outlines the issues discussed in the TEP workshop that are either common around the region or unique to each country, with particular focus here on possible areas for international cooperation.
A Context-sensitive Approach to Educational Aid
This paper argues that the approach to educational aid must be sensitive to underlying fundamental contextual considerations within the communities aided. In Pacific Islands countries, these relate to weak leadership and, consequently, a lack of clear national vision and plan for education. This paper discusses the Re-thinking Pacific Education Initiative, its contextsensitive approach and its areas of innovation, significance and challenge.
Introduction and experience with the primary mail services based on their names for students
Kyushu University provided mail service based on student IDs such as "1AB10123X" to the university students for many years. Using this model, we had problems communicating with the students who graduated from the University and enrolled in the graduate school. The students received new mail addresses based on their new student IDs such as "2AB12789Y". Faculty members were forced to change the student mail addresses in the mailing lists and in their mail client address book. Furthermore, students were forced to notify the e-mail address change to all of their existing contacts. We introduced a new mail system to provide addresses based on the student name, as well as student ID in April 2011. The new naming convention uses the following format: lastname.firstname.999 where 999 is a random number of 3 digits. Students can select some combination patterns of their first and last names for Japanese. We also consider the middle names for foreign students. In the system implementation, we did not have the formal information of alphabetical names for students. We generated alphabetical names from Japanese Katakana names. It is not easy for us to get the appropriate name in this manner. We implemented a confirmation stage of the alphabetical name at first use, and then students can select their mail addresses for their convenience. We paid much attention to the user interface in the system. Since April 2011, the number of users who use the mail address based on their own name has been increasing gradually. This paper will detail the usage status of the new system.