Gender equality and education in Tonga

In common with most countries around the world, Tongans celebrated last week International Teachers Day. Here the theme was not that clear but it included the following three words: gender, equality, education. Teachers in Tonga are doing very well. Both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition are former teachers. If you listen to radio talk-back shows you will learn, from the teachers who took part and it was mostly teachers who called, that teaching is a very, very difficult profession. One teacher went as far as equating teaching with self-sacrificing. It makes you wonder why at all did they want to be teachers if it is that painful. You do not hear surgeons, emergency ward nurses, plumbers and accountants bleat like that. Only our government lawyers have outdone the teachers in that department, but we'll leave commenting on that to another blog. Two government high schools are located at Tongatapu, the main island; Tonga College, an all-boys school, and Tonga High School, a co-educational institution. Tonga College is the government's biggest in terms of students roll. You are tempted then to ask why isn't Tonga High School an all-girls school? Tonga's ministry of education is adept in importing the latest mantras and catch-phrases. But when the dust settles one thing stands out; secondary education is becoming very expensive here and unnecessarily so. And girls from low-income families are among the first to suffer. Why not use the millions of pa'anga donated annually to this sector by the World Bank, and the governments of Australia and New Zealand to usher in a free distance education program? That would also cater for single mothers. Since wealthier students benefit from extra classes by private tutors and consequently perform well in public exams, why not replace the utterly useless television programs "about education" that we now endure five times a week with free tuition by specialist teachers?