28th September 2016 Teachers, parents and students of the Maamaloa Vaololoa Kindergarten celebrated the completion of a new school building funded by the Grant Assistance for Grass-Roots Human Security Projects from the people and the government of Japan yesterday.
The grant amount for the project was TOP$177,217.22 pa’anga.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Kingdom of Tonga His Excellency Mr. Yukio Numata applauded the PTA and students of Maamaloa Vaololoa Kindergarten on their determination to attain the internationally agreed goal of ‘Education for All’ by the recognition of the Early Childhood Education.
“Early Childhood Development has been recognized as a necessary element in achieving inclusive and equitable quality education that will promote lifelong learning opportunity for all, and is set in Goal 4 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
“For Tonga as a youth bulge nation, the need of preparing good Early Childhood Education environment has grown even larger, and it has been our pleasure to be able to assist the PTA in achieving such an environment,” he said.
Two classrooms, one staff room and one store room will now house the growing number of students enrolled each year and a space for pupils registered for inclusive education.
Minister of Public Enterprises, Hon. Poasi Tei attended the program and he acknowledged the generous assistance from the people and government of Japan and their continuous support to the people of Tonga.
The first GGP project was implemented in Tonga in 1990, as part of Japan’s commitment to help the socio-economic development of Tonga. The GGP assists small scaled projects in a wide range of community-based sectors such as village groups, townships’ administration, educational and medical institutions and Non-government Organizations.
Japan has always put Education very highly on its list of priorities, since the GGP was introduced to Tonga, over 50 percent of the projects implemented have been related in providing assistance that will strengthen the learning quality and universal access to learning opportunities for children.
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Issued by the: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications