Government allocates $20m for USP-Solomon Islands Campus.

GOVERNMENT is seriously working on ways to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of the South Pacific (USP) to fast track the establishment of a fourth USP campus in Solomon Islands.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education Barnabas Anga said the government maintains its commitment to the USP campus because it sees the importance and benefits to the country.

He said the Education Ministry has allocated SBD$20 million dollars to fund the process of establishing the campus.

“This money is pledged to show USP the Solomon Islands government’s commitment to host the fourth campus,” Mr Anga said at a meeting organized for all government Permanent Secretaries yesterday.

The USP campus issue is one of the major issues the government wants to address in its corporate plan in 2007.

Among other issues in the corporate plan, Mr Anga also said the Education Ministry is planning to improve the USP extension centres in the provinces. He said the idea is to make USP studies accessible in the provinces making it cheaper for students. This will also help to solve accommodation problems when the USP campus in Honiara comes into operation.

The provincial centres will be assisted through the Distance Flexible Learning mode which is assisted by Satellite technology through delivery of learning via the internet.


Source:Government communication unit .