A consignment of 92,400 mathematic books for primary schools have arrived in the country on October 28, 2023 and will be delivered to schools early next year.
These books have been written by local writers with support from Cognition Education International technical advisers and structurally edited in New Zealand by Wavelength the sister company of Cognition Education.
These new teaching and learning resources have been published as part of the Curriculum Development project being managed by Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD) in partnership with Cognition Education technical support.
The project is supported by the Governments of Australia, New Zealand and Solomon Islands through the Solomon Islands Education Sector Support Program.
The 92,400 mathematics books comprise of Years 3 and 4 Learner’s Books (2 volumes per title), Years 3, 4, and 5 Teacher’s Guides and Years 3 and 4 Copy Masters (reproducible templates).
The print numbers allow for 20 copies of each Learner’s Book to go to all Solomon Islands primary schools, as well as 5 copies of each Teacher’s Guide and Copy Master book.
The colleagues in MEHRD, particularly the Curriculum Development Division have been central to this project and its creative processes.
It is important that the learning materials for teachers and students are developed with a Solomon Islands’ ‘lens’ to ensure they are culturally robust, educationally sound, address cross cutting issues and reinforce key values and competencies (the six Solomon Islands Capabilities).
Equally important is to ensure the books are practical in terms of being used in classroom settings with resources commonly available in schools.
These books have been developed around a body of research that shows a significant and positive relationship between the availability of teaching and learning resources and effective content delivery by teachers.
The implication is that when enough high-quality resources are available there will be better teaching and learning outcomes.
Designed to be engaging and enjoyable for learner’s, these mathematics books also align with current ‘best practice’ for Solomon Island teachers.