THE Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD), driven by its commitment to implement its priority activities for next year, conducted a two-day Annual Work Planning workshop.
The workshop was held on Thursday 29 to Friday 30 August at the Melanesian Haus at the St Barnabas Cathedral.
Facilitated by the Strategic Support Division within MEHRD in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the annual work plan devised identified key activities and projects that the MEHRD would implement in 2025.
The workshop was convened a week ahead of the much-anticipated launch of the National Budget Strategy of the National Government which the Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MOFT) will launch this Friday 6 September. The planning of the 2025 MEHRD work plan till it is finalized.
The participants in the workshop comprised Senior Management staff, Heads of Divisions, senior officials and advisors of MEHRD who have been identified to lead the implementation of priority activities and projects in accordance with the National Education Action Plan 2022-2026.
The two-day workshop provided an opportunity for Heads of Divisions and senior officers of the ministry to review their progress against their 2024 priorities, share experiences and evidence as well as provide resolutions to shape the priority activities for 2025. Learning from the lessons of the past year, the ministry was satisfied that it had paved the direction to improve the planning process and look ahead to the implementation of the planned activities and projects in 2025.
Furthermore, the workshop provided the opportunity for each division within MEHRD to agree on their priorities, engage in group discussions and design SMART activities for their 2025 divisional plans. The resource persons that led each planning session focused on how to set SMART goals that are – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
At the conclusion of the workshop, each division identified the core activities that would make up their 2025 divisional annual work plan.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Permanent Secretary Dr Franco Rodie said planning is crucial to ensure the ministry identifies the activities and projects it intends to implement next year.
He was impressed that his ministry had a clear direction in planning the activities and projects for next year.
“I am glad we now have a clear direction in which we are going to plan the activities and project.”
While he was impressed with the planning, Dr Rodie reminded the participants to carefully plan their activities and projects considering the ministry’s capacities, contexts and ensuring they are within the budget baseline.
In 2025, MEHRD will be implementing the core priorities indicated by the NEAP 2025-2026 and other upcoming programs, including Government for National Unity and Transformation (GNUT) policy, Global Partnership for Education funding (GPE), Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Senior Secondary Improvement School Project.
MEHRD continues to acknowledge UNICEF for its support in the implementation and progress on a number of priority activities such as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, GPE funding, System Transformation Grant, ECE and Teacher Professional Development, Education Legislative Reform and others.
- MEHRD
