Thoughts on Effective Education Output in PNG

 (Theonila Roka's major proposal...)

The Educational history of Papua New Guinea documents numerous innovative efforts by the planners and education administrators of the country. Many commissions and committees have repeatedly stressed the significances of quality teacher training and education but have not proposed practical ways that can substantiate the quality of education in Papua New Guinea which can be shown through the students produced by the educational institutions in the country, both in the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Proposed here are four possible ways which can help the country’s education system to achieve the quality education output as desired.

(i)                 QUALITY AND THE QUANTITY OUTPUT.

Quality refers to essential or distinctive characteristic of a person and quantity refers to the amount of something (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quality). Since the discussion is on education quality refers to the essential characteristic of a teacher and quantity refers to the number of teachers at a particular place and time. Quality and quantity teachers in Papua New Guinea at all educational institutional levels: primary, secondary and tertiary.

Papua New Guinea still has certificate teachers in the country and it is not bad practice. However, there is a problem with inspections and in-service for the certificate teachers. One of the excellent things observed about certificate teachers is that they teach the students with love which is the basic virtue any educator has to posses. Now it goes back to the ministry of Education and the division of Education in all the provinces, certificate teachers’ in-services should be conducted in all the provinces to help the certificate teachers improve their teaching skills.

In doing so, the diploma teachers graduating can teach under the supervision of the certificate teachers; two things can be learnt here by the diploma teachers. Firstly that teaching is a humble profession that requires a teacher to teach with love and secondly that teaching is not for money but for service for a prosperous nation building.  An inexperienced teacher can be motivated, molded and shaped and be set towards the right career path by an experienced certificate teacher.

Quantity Output should not be the education department’s grave concern. Instead the education Department must work towards producing quality teachers prior to it conversing for the quantity of teaching force.

Currently there is a lack of substance knowledge to enhance the teachers’ pedagogical skills in the field. In the simplest language, there is no motivation in the current teaching force as it was in the past when the missions were dominating the education of Papua New Guinea.

(ii)               REQUIREMENT OF THE GREAT POINT AVERAGE

From general observation and the requirements of academic results in terms of eligibility of students going in to teaching colleges in Papua New Guinea is very low. Not only the colleges but even to University of Goroka. The ones who go through the selections done by the office of Higher education are quite good but the problem comes when selecting the ones known despite considering the great point average they score.

The matriculation from grades eight and ten pull outs finally make their way into teachers colleges. This is a grave path for Papua New Guinea’s downfall. Teachers produced in this way are complete disaster for nation building. Being a student taught in two primary grades by such teachers I can confidently criticize because it is the teacher who will fail the with the lack of knowledge in sentence structuring and pronunciation. In addition to that, these kinds of teachers are not motivating; they do not have knowledge on how to handle students with different paces of learning in the same class.

The ministry of Education should discourage this practice in the country by elevating the GPA’s of students applying into teachers colleges and also behavioral reports for the applying students should be thoroughly examined. All students from distant matriculation centers applying to the teachers colleges should go through the office of higher education for assessment. Otherwise, students from matriculation centers should be directly accepted in the technical colleges.

The minimum GPA for students applying into colleges should be 2.5 and above. If only the GPA of the teaching personnel’s is high there will be confidence that teachers are professionally accepted in their fields. It would also be a good idea because students will always depend on how much insights the teachers can give to the students and that is where the motivation lies. The more insights given to students the more the students will be psychologically motivated to prioritize their education for the good of their future.

Moreover, selection of teachers should depend on the career interest meaning that it must be the student’s deepest desire to become a teacher. This is one of the things that are lacking the current teacher education system, where by many students from secondary schools apply into teachers colleges with the fear of not securing a place in the universities and other colleges.

Thus, when they join the teaching force they are reluctant to teach in the rural areas, they are not up to date with their lessons. Worst of all they criticize the citizens of the communities they serve.

                                                                                                                                                                     

(iii)             PROGRAMMES DESIGN

In grades eleven and twelve history is one of the subjects taught in the curriculum of the Papua New Guinea education system. This is not a bad idea, but how rational is it to know another person’s history without knowing your own history. Students learn western History in secondary schools and when they go into tertiary institutions the students are taught to focus on PNG. Also the history taught to the secondary school students is ambiguous because the causes (or the roots) of the history such as world wars are not clearly taught.

It would be a good idea to design subjects in a way that will meet and address the needs of the communities served, meaning that teachers should have a clear knowledge about the background of the programmes they teach. The designers of the subject taught should analyze the needs before designing the units as well.

Going back to history I believe that PNG can make a difference in terms addressing the issues of regionalism if PNG history can be a subject taught throughout the country. This subject can help the students to understands why certain people in PNG behave the way they do, because has a matter of fact observation and socialization alone cannot help the students understand each other’s culture for a country with more than 800 languages and way of life.

Then, the western history we learn should be incorporated into Religious Education because it is from the church the modern world history emerged. Religious Education is a very interesting course which requires people who have knowledge about the Church history to teach. Social and Religious studies students of Divine Word University can be engaged to teach this unit although the country.

A common problem this subject can address in PNG is the criticism among Church. All these problems are occurring in the country dividing the Christians because Christians do not know the background of the Churches’ histories.

Looking at the jobs demand today in Papua New Guinea, our country is in dire need of researchers. Any independent state should have at least over four thousand researchers. All the plans made should come from the findings presented by the researchers. Thus research should be effectively taught in the universities despite the student’s area of studies.

To sum Papua New Guinea should set a standard criterion for subject design upon need the need of the country to reduce institutional duplication and competition that would lead to problems in the near future. In doing so the education ministry would produce teachers who would work under less supervision. This will also help in the quality and quantity supply of teaching personals in the country when experienced teachers motivated the inexperienced ones and putting them into their right career paths.

(iv)              MOTIVATION

All the teachers colleges in the country should provide and an environment conducive for learning, meaning that the learning facilities should be good. Libraries in the teaching colleges should be in line with the advancement. The management of the school should use their initiative to develop colleges own business arm to generate money for themselves instead of depending heavily on the government to do everything.

This are some of the ways that can boost the morale of the teacher trainees so whenever they go into the teaching field they will always have something to take pride in and give their best in the teaching career.

Take for example Divine Word University, students despite the food provided in the mess for four years work with pride as once students of this university. It is because they are motivated through the advancement in technology, the issue of the laptops and the best library in the country with reliable staff. When students go into their professional fields they do not see the food as factor that can take the pride away.

Comparing university of Papua New Guinea and University of technology to Divine Word University, the graduates of the other universities are not as active as the graduates of Divine Word University because there is no motivation. The pride which they have is firm because it is coming out from the commitment of the management and the staffs of the university itself and the government supports what the institution does.

If the students in the teachers colleges are motivated in the same way, their students would graduate in flying colors and never would take defeat the high morale.

·         Commonwealth Secretariat (2009),  Commonwealth Education Partnerships ,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

·         http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/spetses_pdf/41_Nelson.pdf

·         http://directions.usp.ac.fj/collect/direct/index/assoc/D1175709.dir/doc.pdf