THE final round of consultation for the new Education Bill should be done by the end of October this year says the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development under secretary, James Bosamata.
Mr Bosamata said the Ministry is currently engaging in consultations with its stakeholders to revise the current Education Act that was described by many as long overdue.
As part of the wider consultation for the formulation of the new Education Bill, the Ministry since 2013 visited the provinces as part of the phase one in its consultation to put together a draft Education Bill which the ministry has in hand at the moment.
He said, the new Bill now reaches the draft stages and the Ministry will again consult all the provinces to comment on the draft Bill before pushing it to the Parliament for debate and passing.
To kick-off the phase two of the nationwide consultation, the Ministry last week Friday has engaged all the members of Education Minister in a one day consultation held at the St Banarbas Cathedral in Honiara.
The purpose of engaging the members to was to allow those who are currently serving in the Ministry to contribute on the draft before going out to the provinces for more consultation, he said.
He said, so far the Ministry has already carried the second phase of consultation in three provinces.
This week a team from the Ministry will carry out further consultations in Isabel and Renbel.
According to the Ministry’s timeline, consultations for the last five remaining provinces will be held on last two weeks of this month and believes should be completed before the end of the month.
Asked about when the new Education Act should come into effect, Mr Bosamata said, by the look of things the new Bill should come into effect by early next year.
“When the second phase of the consultation completes at the end of October, the draft Bill will be sent to the Cabinet and then to the input of the Attorney General chamber and then it would go to the Bills and Legislations committee for approval and the last step is to the Parliament for tabling,” he said.
Mr Bosamata said, once this new Bill comes into place it will surely accommodate all the aspects of the current education system in the country that the country has been practising it for sometimes now but is not in the Education Act.
By BIRIAU WILSON SAENI
