Papua New Guinea's Minister for Community Development, Dame Carol Kidu, says that civics education is an absolutely basic requirement for development.
Dame Carol is part of a workshop in Suva this week where people from the region have been sharing ideas on how to impart concepts such as the rights and responsibilities of ordinary citizens.
Some civics is already taught in most schools in the Pacific but Dame Carol says in PNG many cannot be reached through the formal sector and this is the challenge for her ministry.
"We have really been focussing for the last four years to create a new policy framework that is based on a life long learning policy through alternate strategies. And community based learning -informal sector as well as partnering with the formal system."
