During his visit to Australia this week, Prime Minister James Marape visited Cherrybrook School in New South Wales, one of Australia’s highest performing schools.
While at the school, Prime Minister Marape talked about how Papua New Guinea is approaching the challenges of ensuring access to high quality education for all students, and how the Papua New Guinea-Australia partnership can work with his Government to achieve this ambition.
The visit was also an opportunity to discuss a new joint education initiative, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Marape after the inaugural Papua New Guinea-Australia Leaders’ Dialogue on 22 July.
The new PNGAus Partnership Secondary Schools Initiative will strengthen enduring education linkages between Papua New Guinea and Australia. It will pair Papua New Guinean and Australian secondary schools to build education and leadership skills and deepen people-to-people and institutional links.
The initiative, worth nearly PGK23 million over three years (2019-2021), will connect Papua New Guinean and Australian students, teachers, principals and education authorities to better prepare future generations to thrive in a technology-driven and globally interconnected 21st century.
The initiative will support twelve secondary school in Papua New Guinea to partner with twelve schools in Australia, particularly in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and youth leadership.
Further information on the new initiative, including information on an official launch, will be provided as activities and schools are determined.
PM Marape with students from Cherrybrook Technology High School.