Cook Islands Department Of National Human Resources Development

27 June 2011: Tertiary Awards Programme (TAP) Manager, Ms Ngarangi Tangaroa-Teio attended a Regional Developmental Scholarships (RDS) workshop in Suva Fiji which ran from 23 – 27 June 2011.  This workshop was also attended by Ms Gloria Rarere, Development Programme Administrator from the New Zealand High Commission in Rarotonga. There were nine participants from around the Pacific region that attended with the meeting facilitated by New Zealand Scholarships personnel based in Fiji namely Ms Emma Dunlop, Ms Vamarasi Mausio & Ms Arati Sudhakar.  The purpose of the meeting was to look at ways to strengthen NZRDS delivery by looking at streamlining services with the view to getting the best out of our scholarship students.   In the past, monitoring trips had been made by regional scholarship officers at different times throughout the year. This is where the idea of a combined monitoring visit/workshop came in.

Highlights of the workshop were looking at best practices and ways of addressing issues that were generic to other regional countries.  It was also an opportunity for both participants from the Cook Islands to learn and share experiences that may assist with improvements to scholarship systems for the Cook Islands.  As part of this meeting, a monitoring visit was conducted at the University of the South Pacific (USP).  Visits were also arranged to the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM) are tertiary level training provider in the field of health and medical studies that is now merged under the umbrella of the Fiji National University (FNU).  The Fiji School of Nursing (FSN), Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT) and two other tertiary level providers is also under the umbrella of FNU. 

Ngarangi and Gloria met with our Cook Islands RDS students at USP, Ms Lafala Turepu, Mr Utia Turoa Opo and Ms Ana Andrew; and Ms Donna Mokoroa and Mr Norman Tangi at FSM.  It was also an opportunity to meet with nine other Cook Islands students studying in the area of health under WHO & UNFPA scholarships administered by the Cook Islands Ministry of Health.  The overall feedback from our RDS students in terms of academic welfare was they feel that they are on par to get through with their course requirements.

The students were in the middle of preparing for the upcoming exams along with getting assignments submitted and doing presentations that is part of their assessments.DNHRD sends their best wishes to all Cook Islands students in Fiji with their upcoming exams and we are sure that their country is behind them in this support for doing their best in passing their exams for Semester 1, 2011.