Corporate entry: Honiara Technical Institute

Alternative Names
  • Solomon Islands College of Higher Education

Details

In May 1968, work commenced on Honiara Technical Institute in the grounds of the Agricultural College at Kukum. The Principal was George Hardcastle and the Institute opened in 1969 with five schools: Marine, Agriculture, Commerce, Survey and Draughting, and Trades. The intention was to combine the existing Agricultural College and the Survey and Draughting School into the new Technical Institute. It was hoped that Honiara Technical Institute would develop regional significance and draw students from neighbouring Pacific colonies. By 1970, two hundred students were enrolled from the Solomon Islands, Tonga, New Hebrides (11 percent of the enrolment) and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. At the end of its first two years, some 422 students had attended some type of full-time training. The Institute also added clerical training to its syllabus and in 1969 the first seven women sat for the Elementary Typewriting Examination from Pitman's College in England: Maxine Bretcherfield, Elizabeth Maelaua, Urmila Singh, Selina Har, Daisy Sikori, Jocelyn Mamupio and Maetofea Waleilia.


As localisation increased in government and private industry, there was a growing need for trained workers, and by 1971 239 students were enrolled. Electrical basic training, a basic building course, a full-time course in clerical work and a short course for coxswains were introduced. In 1974, the enrolment was 587 full-time students, 600 of them attending courses of six months to one year in technical and commerce subjects. The remainder attended short courses on supervision, auto electrics, outboard motor servicing and coxswains' training. Evening classes were held in typing, shorthand and Solomons Pijin English for expatriates, with an enrolment of 409 during the year. There were also part-time courses in bookkeeping, correspondence and report writing, and refrigeration. (NS 31 May 1968, 31 Jan. 1970; AR 1969, 4, AR 1971, 60, AR 1974, 71)

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Published resources

Journals

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate (ed.), British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (NS), 1955-1975. Details

Reports

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate Annual Reports (AR), 1896-1973. Details