Noumea takes control of education

By Nic Maclellan

In a massive shift of staffing and financial resources, the local government in New Caledonia will take control of secondary education from France in 2012.
On November 30, members of New Caledonia’s Congress voted unanimously to accept the transfer of key powers from Paris to Noumea, including the regulation of maritime and domestic air traffic and—most importantly—control of secondary and private primary education.
In 2006, New Caledonia gained authority over government-run primary schools. But the decision to take on the secondary system means a doubling of the Pacific nation’s budget, with thousands of new staff coming under local authority. 
With 43,000 students in 180 schools, the number of teachers under Noumea’s control will leap to 4,500 (more than three times the current number). If the local government was to pay all the bills, the education budget would be 46 billion French Pacific francs (A$626 million), so sustainable and ongoing funding has been at the centre of negotiations with Paris for months.
Noumea Accord
The education reforms are part of the ongoing transfer of powers from Paris to Noumea under the Noumea Accord.
The accord, signed in May 1998, set out a twenty-year transition towards a referendum on self-determination. Under the agreement, powers currently held by the French State are being transferred to New Caledonia in stages, supported by ongoing funding from France. Unlike France’s autonomy statute for French Polynesia, these powers cannot revert to Paris once transferred. There needs to be a 3/5 majority in New Caledonia’s Congress to approve the transfer, and all powers must be transferred by 2014, except for the key elements of nationhood—justice, public order, defence, finance and currency.
The transfer of these five remaining “sovereign powers” will be decided in a referendum on self-determination. According to the Noumea Accord, this vote on New Caledonia’s political status will be held between 2014 and 2018 and will focus on “the transfer of sovereign powers to New Caledonia, accession to an international status of full responsibility and transformation from citizenship to nationality.”
In the first government established under the Noumea Accord between 1999 and 2004, very little was done to address the transfer of powers: the government was dominated by the anti-independence Rassemblement UMP party, which continues to see New Caledonia as an integral part of the French republic. But after the 2004 local elections, the incoming government led by the Avenir Ensemble (Future Together) party began to negotiate the transfer of a series of powers.
Rewriting the colonial curriculum
The transfer of primary education provides an example of the challenge facing New Caledonia as it takes on responsibility for secondary education.
Between 2002 and 2006, teachers, parents and a range of educational experts had to debate major changes to the education curriculum. In subjects like history and geography, there was a need to completely rewrite school textbooks, to reflect New Caledonia’s place as a Melanesian nation in the South Pacific, rather than a distant suburb of Paris!
There was extensive debate over whether to make Kanak vernacular languages compulsory for primary students (a proposal eventually abandoned because of concerns over the cost of teacher training and the availability of texts for the 28 Kanak languages). Teachers’ unions had to be persuaded to change the rules so non-qualified personnel could teach in the classroom, allowing older members of the indigenous Kanak community to help young school children learn their languages, history and culture.
Over the next two years, a similar process will be undertaken for secondary schools, with education coming under Noumea’s control from 1 January 2012.
At present, 30 percent of students, mainly Kanak, drop out or are pushed out of school without obtaining any qualifications, so localisation of curriculum and teaching is vital.
For the FLNKS representatives in Congress, speaking in support of the reforms, the French colonial education system had soured successive generations of young people away from a joy of learning: “How many Kanak parents continue to feel resentment towards schools that so often bullied or rejected them? How many young people today still feel so uneasy in our schools, that they leave them with a deep hatred of the system? How else can we explain the regular violent attacks on school buildings and teachers? There is a fundamental problem: what can we do so that New Caledonians of all cultures are proud of their schools?”
According to New Caledonia’s President Philippe Gomes: “The process we’re undertaking must feed into a truly New Caledonian education system. That’s the reason we’re taking two years to implement the changes. In 2010, we will undertake an audit of our education system, to be followed by a great debate across the territory about education. Then in 2011 we’ll develop legislation for the school programme. Our aim is to end up with a more efficient education system that is better suited to our country.”
For months, New Caledonia’s government has been negotiating with the French authorities to guarantee the ongoing funding which will make the transfer possible. France currently funds teachers’ salaries and this has enormous budgetary implications if Noumea has to pay the bills in future years.
Rassemblement UMP leader Pierre Frogier, who serves as one of New Caledonia representatives in the French National Assembly, argued the change should only occur with guaranteed French funding: “Concerning secondary education, we must be assured that the French State will support us in a reasonable manner, to allow New Caledonia to ensure that the quality of its education system is at least as good as currently exists. This especially involves the free provision of staffing and the financing of two new high schools at Mont-Dore and Pouembout, which we have been waiting for many years.”
In a compromise to gain support from anti-independence politicians—worried that education standards will fall—Kanak leaders accepted that France should retain control of some aspects of education policy. Paris has retained authority over teacher qualification, issuing diplomas and approving the final school curriculum.
More powers to come
There’s more changes to come. Under the latest decision, control of maritime affairs in New Caledonia’s territorial waters will take effect on January 1, 2011 and control of domestic air transport and airport police in January 2013 (however the international airport at Tontouta will remain under French control).
By December 2011, the congress must decide on the transfer of other areas, including civil and commercial law, civil security and control of key statutory bodies including the land mobilisation and development office Agence pour le développement rural et l’aménagement foncier (ADRAF) and the Agence pour le développement de la culture Kanak (ADCK), which runs cultural programs and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre. Before 2014, Noumea must appeal to Paris for authority over tertiary education, television and radio and the financial governance of local councils.
While conservative members of the government of New Caledonia sees this process as a shift to greater local autonomy within the French Republic, the FLNKS independence movement sees the changes as a vital step on the path to decolonisation.
Gerard Regnier from the Union Calédonienne party states: “For us in FLNKS, the transfer of powers must be well organised and the timetable must be maintained. You must remember that the position of FLNKS is that all powers must be transferred before 2014, except of course the sovereign powers.”

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US$1.2m oil bill fuels fire

By Jason Brown

Cook Islanders may be holding their hand up as frontline climate refugees, but they’re not shy of buying large, “gas guzzling” 4x4s.
Long-time lawyer Tim Arnold attacked the contradiction last month in a fallout from an attempt by government to nationalise fuel supplies.
 “At the moment, we’re taking a 1950—60’s approach when we should be looking at alternatives such as wind farms and solar power.”
Controversy over the fuel farm project threatens to split the three-year-old coalition ahead of general elections in October.
Two days before Christmas, Prime Minister Jim Marurai sacked his deputy Dr Terepai Maoate, saying “from the outset, the initiative has been poorly executed and ill managed.”
Government last year set aside US$3.9 million to force-purchase the country’s main fuel farm, owned by TOA Petroleum, a Mobil contractor.
This followed late 2008 recommendations by an influential energy consultancy from Australia, Economic and Energy Analysis (EEA) Pty Ltd.
EEA urged government to “rationalise” an estimated 25 million litres in fuel imports each year.
Arnold represented one of four fuel importers that took court action to fend off the attempt.
His client, Triad, agreed to US$52,000 in legal fees while competitor TOA Petroleum got a much larger compensation of US$1.2 million.
Legal fallout
Legal fallout from the case seems likely to attract attention across the region as islands states seek ways to lower steadily rising fuel costs. Particularly as EEA came with a pedigree that includes endorsement from the government in Australia.
EEA recommendations have in the past gained significant government approval in Canberra, particularly a mid-90’s report on “coal and climate change” on ways to allegedly reduce “greenhouse gas” pollution.
However, both EEA and the Cook Islands government were criticised in a review by New Zealand lawyer, Kit Toogood QC.
 “The consultants who were retained (for the TOA deal) lacked the requisite knowledge and experience and were not adequately instructed as to a Terms of Reference,” said Toogood in his review.
Maoate released parts of the Toogood QC review in a press release defending his role in the attempted TOA purchase.
“In advising the government to enter into the Heads of Agreement to purchase the TOA assets, the Financial Secretary acted in reliance upon the report of the consultants which was flawed,” reads the Toogood review.
The Toogood findings may be disputed but background facts are not.
While Australia promoted exports of rich coal deposits, oil prices rose from an average of US$14 per barrel in 1999 to a high of US$140 by May 2008, according to EEA figures.
TOA Petroleum is reported to have spent some US$700,000 on legal fees to complete the deal despite a promise a year ago by Dr Maoate “not to compete with the private sector”.
Government was already facing US$10.2 million in claims from a separate case over cancelled shipping licenses.
Elections
In the capital Rarotonga, attention is focused on what happens next between the two most powerful people in government.
Elections are due in nine months.
Attention centred on whether or not cabinet was kept fully informed of the legal implications stemming from the fuel farm project.
Along with the deputy prime ministership, Maoate lost 12 of his portfolios, including finance. Accepting some blame, the ruling Democratic Party agreed Maoate should lose the finance portfolio, but not the deputy position.
Marurai left Maoate with health and gave him one new ministry, education, both politically difficult.
Explaining the settlement, Maoate said legal advice had warned claims as high as NZ$7.1 million from TOA if government did not negotiate out of court.
Maoate accused Marurai of using the settlement as a “smokescreen” for dirty politics, saying the PM had been briefed every step of the way.
Meanwhile, Arnold stepped back into the fray, accusing government of mixed messages, noting that Marurai had called on leaders at the Copenhagen climate conference to “step up” and provide action not more words.
“The inherent contradiction between the government of the Cook Islands attempting to reduce the price of fuel in order to provide relief for the large numbers of four-wheel drives, six cylinder cars and gas guzzling outboards over here; and the message that the Cook Islands is putting to Copenhagen,” he told Radio New Zealand International.
“It’s a contradiction that needs to be resolved by the government at some stage.”
Mixed messages or nit picking?
Ether way, the controversy saw rare spin in favour of the environment, an issue yet to catch on at local level politics in small islands states like the Cooks.