Photo: Children at Baruni Dump, Port Moresby
Key priority areas to be overviewed by Education Department
Papua New Guinea’s Education system has suffered from a number of policy shifts, drastic changes in curriculum and under resourcing over the years. The free education policy has succeeded in increasing the number of students attending schools, however quantity outcomes have been prioritized over quality outcomes and has imposed a significant strain on teachers accommodating very large classes.
Consecutive governments have not ensured the availability of sufficient number of qualified teachers to respond to the increased demand for quality education in schools.
More than 85 percent of Papua New Guinea’s population live in rural areas, this includes students right from the southern end of Milne Bay, Central, and Gulf up the Mountains to the Agricultural Heartlands of the Highlands region all the way further to the Northern end of West and East Sepik right across the sea to the New Guinea Islands.
The challenges they face at home often spill over to school. Challenges such as Absenteeism, Travelling distance, lack of basic needs and limited access to technology. Trying to find solutions to those problems are teachers, principals and the everyday local community.
For instance, Provinces such as Central, Eastern Highlands, East Sepik, Morobe and East New Britain had been some of the top provinces with high achievements in the education sector but that has not been the reality lately as the system is slowly deteriorating.
These provinces are home to some of the oldest National High Schools in PNG which are Sogeri, Aiyura, Passam, Wawin and Kerevat, this schools have produced some of the nation’s best academics and professionals.
Two of Papua New Guinea’s Premier Universities the University of Technology (Morobe) and the University of Goroka are also located in the Heart of two of these Provinces; Graduates from these Universities have gone into leadership positions in the government, the private sector, and in civil society. But there are still a lot of challenges that face the education system in these provinces.
The Education system has encountered its fair share of Mishaps; schools in the country have been facing problems in key areas such as infrastructure, insufficient equipment, overcrowding and limited libraries. Teacher absenteeism is also a main issue in schools throughout the country due to teachers not getting paid. Teaching and learning in schools were not properly assessed and scrutinized and this system carried on without direction. A major shortcoming had been a lack of communication between schools and the education department of the country.
The PM is adamant in changing the education system of the country and setting it in order. In achieving this, he plans to create an effective education board that reports directly to the Education Ministry.
The Marape-Rosso government’s goal is to provide quality education for the people and in achieving that they aim to improve access to schools and improve equity to schooling throughout the country. Currently there has been an increase in the registering and expanding of new and old schools in all districts and provinces so that schools can be accessible to all able-bodied Papua New Guinean children in towns and in remote areas where schools are inaccessible.
There has already been the inception of new junior high schools registered in certain provinces and districts to accommodate primary school students to continue on to high school. The reason for these Junior High Schools is to eliminate the problem of space limitation that a lot of high schools have been facing over the years.
To improve the education standard and academic performance of the country, The PM is working closely with the Education Department to supply materials for infrastructure to upgrade classrooms, teacher’s houses and other school buildings to improve access to schools; this will also include curriculum materials to improve the quality of education.
The improvement of each provincial academic performance is also of outmost importance to the Marape- Rosso Government. The current regime plans to establish Provincial Academic Boards in each province to organize and coordinate academic programs throughout the country.
The Provincial Academic Boards will be put in place to gather information and analyze examination results of Grades 8s, 10s and 12s to be able to see the performance of schools throughout each province. This will also enable them to monitor if school principals and their teachers are performing their duties.
During a recent presentation at Wawin National High School, Secretary for the Department of Education stated that PNG cannot continue to become a consumer only. Kombra said it was important to produce innovators and creators who would put the country on the world map with their brilliant and innovative creations.
“In order to achieve that we must first create concepts in the country’s education system that would promote and encourage brilliance in the minds of students and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education is one way of achieving that” he said.
Kombra added that through STEM the government intended to ensure that students will benefit by improving their learning capacity and produce the next generation of manpower that will be fit to adopt the latest technology innovations in order to create systems to drive the productivity and efficiency of the country’s growing economy.
PNG is currently going through a curriculum reform in which they are abolishing the old system of outcome base curriculum to the standard base curriculum. The Education department is effectively implementing these systems for Teachers and Administrators to have stability and support to deliver better education to the growing number of children attending schools throughout the country.
The government wants students to be competent at all levels in the future and this can only be achieved by transforming education through innovation and unity.
Also, in a separate press statement Secretary for Education Dr Uke Kombra, called on participants attending the recent 31st Senior Education Officers Conference in Kavieng, New Ireland Province to revisit and restrategise on Government priorities on Education in the country.
“When giving an overview of key priorities aimed at addressing equity there are two important and critical goals that need attention, this are to ensure that every child receives 13 years of education, and that education must come with quality”.
