English should be made compulsory

Source: 

The National, Wednesday 19th December, 2012

By ELIAS LARI
WESTERN Highlands elementary teachers’ trainer and inspector Susan Akike has called on the government to make English a subject of its own.
Akike said she preferred the outcomes-based education as the best curriculum to be used in PNG.
She said it would be impossible to take back the old system because “there is nothing wrong with the OBE”.
Akike said the government should fund and provide the logistic support so that those coordinating could ensure that the OBE curriculum worked well.
“If there is constant monitoring about how the system works then this will bring a lot of impact,” she said.
“Why I’m saying this is because I’m specialising in the OBE system and it is the best to be used for our children.”
She said one problem teachers had been facing was that they had not received OBE curriculum books.
“Who knows where these books were kept and that makes the elementary teachers struggle to prepare lessons.”
She said abolishing OBE would not make any change and urged the government to introduce English in elementary.
She called for the government to introduce English at the elementary, provide logistic support and change the time of classes to start at 8am and end at 2pm.
She urged Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to reconsider his decision on scrapping the OBE.
“You cannot just come out to remove this curriculum but it would be better if proper planning is in place.”

Via The National
http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/42890

Local Teachers are qualified English Teachers

Source: 

The National, Wednesday 19th December, 2012

By ELIAS LARI
A HEADMASTER in Western Highlands says teachers throughout PNG are qualified to teach English.
Keltiga Primary School headmaster Timbi Kumbamang said he disagreed with Ambunti-Dreikikir parliamentarian Tony Aimo.
Speaking on the Outcomes-Based Education on Monday, Aimo said if OBE was removed, it would make improvement because most teachers were qualified to teach English.
Aimo said PNG should emphasise quality teacher training.
But Kumbamang said teachers were specialised in teaching English.
“To train teachers will be a waste of public funds and time but it will be better if the OBE system is removed and the Pacific Series is introduced,”
Kumbamang said.
He said he supported Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s plan to do away with the OBE system.
Kumbamang said the OBE would never do anything good for the country and the education of children.
“My school will be using the Pacific Series starting next year because I believe English is the key subject in education,” Kumbamang said.
He said the government would not waste money to train teachers because they were professionals in their own field.
“English is the key subject in education that is why schools have to teach it (English).”
He said when he went to school they were using the Mineda curriculum but the Pacific series was still the best.
“I support O’Neill’s idea to do away with the OBE curriculum, which will not provide any help to our children’s learning.
“Thank you, prime minister for your wise thinking to change the OBE curriculum.”

Via The National
http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/42891

Education is important

Source:

The National, Wednesday 19th December, 2012

By ELIAS LARI

EDUCATION is another important component in nation-building and the government and parents should give greater concentration to it, a principal says.
Anglimp High School principal George Rambang said that last Friday during the school’s 11th Grade 10 graduation.
Rambang said education was an investment that could make the future generation become somebody important.
He said in order to see young people become somebody useful, it needed the government and parents to start investing in their lives through education.
“Parents, do not give up if your children failed his or her education because there is always a way out and a way in,” he said.
“If there is no space in secondary schools, this does not mean that it is the end of their education.”
He said children should be disciplined at home as that was where parents should explain to them the importance of getting an education.
Rambang said the country needed more lawyers, accountants and pilots and that needed greater investment in education.
“We know that the government is paying for school fees but this does not mean we, parents, are to waste our resources on something else,” he said.
“The burden that really weakens us is school fee but it is our privilege to have the government remove this load from our shoulders.
“Knowledge is power and education is life.”
He said as a teacher he knew what education was and how it could make somebody important

Via The National
http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/42878

Woman in childbirth saved by united effort

By MANGA BENGI and PETER KORUGL

Thirty-eight long years and mothers continue to die from childbirth complications in rural areas of Papua New Guinea. Their ordeal was highlighted recently by a young mother who could have died if help had not gone to her in the nick of time. The young mother from the remote Jimi District of Jiwaka Province has miraculously survived a life-threatening situation following the delivery of her newborn baby. Here is rescue operations as a result of different partners working together to improve and sustain health service delivery into rural areas of the country. Susan Moses, aged 28, from Togban village in the Lower Jimi area had retained placenta after giving birth to her fifth child at 3.30am on Sunday, May 20, 2012.
The nurse-in-charge of Togban Health Centre Allan Karu attended to her immediately and tried to remove the placenta by following all protocols of O&G (obstetrics and gynaecology) management procedure but without success. He then called Mt Hagen General Hospital for immediate help, using the closed user group (CUG) digicel mobile phone, powered by solar energy. With quick response from third level airline, MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) which diverted a flight from Goroka to Mt Hagen, the young mother was airlifted to Mt Hagen on Wednesday afternoon and admitted to Mt Hagen Hospital where she is now recovering. “She was losing a lot of blood and was fast becoming weak. I was worried that if she remained in the same condition for an extended period of time, she may lose her life,” Mr Karu said.
Mt Hagen Hospital’s acting director Medical Services Dr Guapo Kiagi was in constant contact with Mr Karu, advising him on what to do in such a situation, through the health services CUG mobile communication while he and acting director Public Health Philip Talpa organised for possible medivac as the road to the area was impassable by vehicles. On Monday morning, with the approval of the WHPHA Chief Executive Officer Dr James Kintwa, Mr Talpa and Dr Kiagi sought assistance from helicopter companies to medivac the woman to Mt Hagen but without success as all helicopters had been hired out. With not much hope of getting her out quickly, Mr Karu was advised to organise for the woman to be carried on a stretcher to as far as they could go where a vehicle might meet them on the way. A WHPHA vehicle sent to Togban had to return half way due to the bad conditions in the Jimi District.
The vehicle arrived at Kwima Aidpost, a six-hour walk from Togban and stayed overnight. The patient was weak and still losing blood but an IV fluid that she was put on helped her and the next day they had to walk for another six- seven hours before catching a vehicle to the nearest airstrip at Koinambe where they slept again before catching the flight to Mt Hagen. Mr Karu said an additional IV fluid he found at Kwima Aidpost added more hope for the patient’s survival and he was pleased that at Koinambe, with the help of this fluid, she managed to eat some noodles and opened her eyes and talked and smiled. Mr Karu’s wife Jacklyn who is also a nurse at Togban Health Centre helped administer the fluids.

Bulolo sponsors teachers

By FRANK RAI

THE Bulolo Joint District Planning and Budget Priority Committee (JDP&BPC) has paid K60,000 on Monday as school fee subsidy for trainee teachers from Bulolo District attending Balob Teachers College in Lae. The fees were paid for 30 students who had been undertaking teacher training under a special arrangement between the school and Bulolo District. The arrangement was to have selected Bulolo students from the rural areas taking up teacher training under the sponsorship of the district and go back to teach in their remote villages. While presenting the cheque to school principal Jerry Hendigau, Bulolo MP and Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Sam Basil said schools in the vast remote areas of the district were in dire need of teachers. “Most of the teachers in the remote schools have fled and there are no teachers.

“That is the reason why the Bulolo JDP&BPC has come up with the initiative to sponsor students at Balob Teachers College so that after graduating, they would return to their areas and teach,” Mr Basil said. The local MP said areas like Wafi, Yanta, Biaru, Waria, Garina and some parts of Watut needed teachers and the Bulolo JDP&BPC has to take out students from those areas and send them to Balob for teacher training. Mr Basil said the teacher training program arrangement with Balob Teachers College would be incorporated into the Bulolo District five-year development plan so that there were students coming in every year. “I want to thank the college for allowing the students to undertake teacher training and furthermore request if the number for Bulolo student intake could increase,” Mr Basil said.

Meanwhile, college principal Mr Hendigau commended Mr Basil for the timely sponsorship and stressed that human resource sector was an important sector in the country. He said when there was an educated population in a country, there would be smooth flow of tangible service delivery. The principal said the sponsorship of students was a right direction Bulolo District had taken and should be sustained in the years to come.

Be careful when choosing leaders-2012

LEADING a nation of people is a complex task. A nation is made up of people with variety of opinions, languages, cultures and expectations. It requires people with special skills in dealing with the human factor. So my people of PNG do not take your vote for granted when it comes to voting a leader in your respective electorate in the forthcoming national elections in July. Our country needs good leaders because wicked leaders will ruin the nation. How are we going to measure our MP's performances over the last five years? What is the matrix? I suggest that we weigh out our MP's performance against the following indicators:-

• Educationally how many of our young people in the electorate had received good quality education up to tertiary levels and where is the tangible evidence of their entry into employment.
  
• Health wise, how effective has been health services in the electorate and what are the tangible evidence in terms of services and the health of our people?
  
• * Infrastructure wise, how are the states of roads, bridges, airstrips and jetties in our electorate.
  
• Economically, to what extent have the people been encouraged in microenterprise development?
  
• Constitutionally, has our elected MP adhered to the laws of the country when dealing with issues in parliament and in relation to good governance?
  
• How effectively has our MP as a legislator participated in parliamentary debates, initiating and passing of laws?
  
• Has our MP been living in the electorate in the last five years?
  
• Has our MP had any morality issues that would affect his integrity and credibility as a leader in terms of marital relationship?
  
• How truly have our MP committed himself to our Christian beliefs as we are a Christian nation. We must have all these questions in our mind to assess our MP's performance before we ever think of casting our votes for them.

Minister accuses own department of being idle

Source: 

The National, 01st May 2012

 http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32160

 

EDUCATION Minister Theo Zurenuoc has accused his department of sleeping and not moving to implement government programmes and commitments.
Zurenuoc said that during Question Time in Parliament when responding to Kiriwina-Goodenough MP Jack Cameron, who has been waiting for the K500,000 reimbursements of his district’s RESI (Rehabilitation of Education Sector Infrastructure) funds.
Cameron said in September last year, Zurenuoc approved K500,000 funding for upgrading Watuluma High School on Goodenough Island, in Milne Bay province.
He said the promised funding was not delivered and the district had to use K500,000 from its RESI funds to upgrade the high school to its status as Watuluma Technical Secondary school.
Cameron asked when this RESI money would be reimbursed to complete RESI programmes in other parts of the district.
He asked what the delay was in the release of the money when Zurenuoc had already approved K500,000 to be released to honour a government commitment.
Zurenuoc said the commitment had been approved but the Department of Education bureaucracy must move to implement government programmes.
He said he could only give directions to the secretary but could not direct the bureaucracy

Law proposed for free education

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20120501/tuhome.htm



By KOLOPU WAIMA



The Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said the government will pass a legislation to make compulsory free education in Papua New Guinea.


Prime Minister Peter O’Neill revealed this when opening ten classrooms (five double classrooms) at Hood Lagoon, Keapara village, Rigo district in the Central Province last Saturday.


He said that education is his party the People National Congress (PNC)’s first priority because it will not only improve the livelihood of the citizens but develop the country.


He said that countries like Botswana in Africa and Malaysia got independence in 1975 as PNG did but they are more developed and advanced because they have invested in education. “We the government of PNG lacks investment in education in previous years therefore the country is not developed as it should be.


“So now I want to redirect the country to the right direction by putting education as my first priority,” he said. The government’s aim he said is to legislate free education so that no successive governments will interfere with it in future. The free education policy translates to the current tuition fees paid by the government for elementary students to grade 10 students and a 75 per cent subsidy for students in Grades 11 and 12.


Mr O’Neill said thousands of school-children are not at school due to school fee problems.


Mr O’Neill said that he took office in August 2 2011 and tries to change the country into right direction in corrections of past mistakes “we have done.”


The national department of education is working on the policy to legislate the compulsory fee free education in the country.

O’Neill: Free education will be made compulsory

Source: 

The National, Monday 30th April 2012

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32107

By JEFFREY ELAPA

THE government will pass a legislation to make free education compulsory in Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said.
He said this while opening five double classrooms at Keapara Primary School in the Hood Lagoon area, Rigo district, Central, last Saturday.
He said his People National Congress party and coalition partners believed strongly in education as the catalyst for change in society.
He said his priority was to rebuild the education system and the educational infrastructures.
O’Neill said on top of the K70 million paid for free education, government hoped to deliver infrastructure grants to all educational institutions.
He said the funds would go straight to the schools so that the teachers, management and parents could control them.
He said countries which became independence around the same time as PNG had developed so fast because they had invested in their human resources.
He said he was looking at giving students the right to education by paying their fees.
After that, schools would be given the opportunity to improve on infrastructure to give them a better learning environment.
He also donated K500,000 for equipment for the new classrooms.
O’Neill also committed K1.5 million for the church and multi-purpose development centre and another K200,000 for sports and church activities

Markham locals give land for oil palm projects

Source: 

The National, Monday 30th April 2012

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32097

By PISAI GUMAR

TWENTY-seven landowners from Umi-Atzera in Markham valley, Morobe province, set a record by releasing 7,000ha of land at no cost to the government and jointly initiated a pioneer oil palm project. Markham MP Koni Iguan thanked the locals for their change of attitude over land disputes by working in partnership with the government.
“Let’s shift away from the traditional mindset by utilising our land meaningfully in agricultural activities to transform our lifestyle,” Iguan said. Incorporated Land Group (ILG) certificates and land title were awarded to landowners to believe in themselves and take part meaningfully during the launching at the Mutzing station last Friday. Provincial administrator Kemaseng Tomala said it took three years to negotiate for the vital project that would exist for years to come and would benefit locals, provincial government and the national economy. He said the tireless effort of provincial special projects officer Bart Ipambonj had become a reality as the first phase included negotiations with landowners, mobilisation, land survey, registration and incorporation of ILGs. Phase two includes oil palm development, securing environmental permit license, secure investors, set up processing mill, using waste products and carbon trade activities. “Importantly, it was to ensure landowners have land titles, ILG certificates, are involved in planting and processing, form ILG companies, become shareholders, harvest and export the end result,” Tomala said. The provincial government supports the project and allocated K1 million for the process, including Markham the joint district planning committee.
The project has seen 145,000 seedlings planted already and a further 155,000 to be planted this year.  “Although the national highway penetrates through the ‘heart’ of Markham, locals remain mere spectators, planting and supplying only peanuts and dry coconuts to mainly Highlanders. Though the land mass was tag as ‘food bowl’ by government after government, nothing positive eventuated over the years,” Iguan said. “Palm oil will provide services that government is unable to provide.” Governor Luther Wenge praised the locals for releasing the land at no cost

Teacher calls on PM to abolish OBE

Source: 

The National, Monday 30th April 2012

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32089

A PRIMARY school headmaster in Central province has called on the prime minister to abolish the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) system in the country.
Lawrence Rewai, the headmaster of Hood Lagoon Primary school in Rigo district, said the OBE was not effective and needed to be changed immediately.
He said the system was not good as it did not prepare students for the higher level of education.
Although the OBE was designed to use local knowledge to produce results, students and the teachers were finding it difficult.
He said Grade 8 performances were gradually dropping since the system was introduced in 2004.
Rewai said it was very difficult also to bridge ele­mentary Year 2 and Year 3 because the children in Papua New Guinea were used to their local vernacular.
He said the old system of education was better as there were sufficient materials and that discipline was maintained to produce results.
He stated that the OBE was only good for countries with only one language.
He said if the country wanted to produce brains that would make changes to the country then it should do away with OBE as Education minister Theo Zurenuoc had announced.

Academic: Jiwaka needs proper model

Source: 

The National, Monday 30th April 2012

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32087

By JUNIOR UKAHA
JIWAKA needs a proper administrative and economic model before it becomes a province, Dr William Tongamp said.
The associate professor at Akita University, in Japan, said that would be done if educated people of the province went back and contributed ideas to develop it.
Tongamp said this during a get-together of educated Jiwaka elites in Port Moresby, last Friday.
He said Jiwaka could be like Japan which advanced quickly after World War II but only if it had the right model and people in place.
 “The Japanese model is that they used knowledge to build their country,” he said.
Tongamp said the country had many politicians but no leaders who could see and understand things of the past and prepare it for the future.
Tongamp, who is contesting the Jiwaka regional seat, said if the model proved successful in Jiwaka, the government could adapt it to administer the country.
Tongamp said with the LNG project and other developments happening in the country, good leaders were needed to manage the benefits that would be derived from them.

Basic education for all a must, says Webster

Source: 

The National, Thursday 26th 2012

By DULCIE OREKE
PAPUA New Guinea will not develop socially and economically if the majority of people do not have basic education, National Research Institute director Dr Thomas Webster said.
He said globally Papua New Guinea ranked as one of the lowest in universal basic education indicators with war and drought stricken countries of the sub-Sahara. "We must make every effort to universal basic education if we are to achieve the goals espoused in Vision 2050," he said.
Speaking during the launching of the new universal basic education policy research framework released in Port Moresby yesterday, Webster said it was sad for PNG that the target date of 2015 would  be missed.
He said as someone who had been observing the country's progress towards the goals of universalising basic education, it would be fair to say that PNG has never been serious about achieving UBE for all.
"It has been simply, statements of intents, with no strategic measures being taken to move the country forward," he said.
He said the challenges were  "immense".
He said less that 15% of the children aged six were now able to enroll at elementary prep.
He said of the many that enrolled into elementary prep at different ages, about half dropped out of school and did not complete primary education.
Webster said the quality of education was so poor that even many of those who got to complete a full primary education had not mastered the competencies desired in reading and writing in arithmetic skills and in general knowledge

Census data shows education

Source: 

The National, Thursday 26th 2012

By DULCIE OREKE
IT is evident that systematic reforms, including education reforms at all levels since 1993, have not had the desired impact on access, retention and quality of education, Education Minister Theodore Zurenuoc says.
He said student enrolment data showed that only 11.5% of six-year-olds in the country were admitted to elementary prep to begin their formal education.
He said 88.5% of the six-year-olds were not admitted.
Speaking during the launch of the new universal basic education policy framework released in Port Moresby yesterday,  Zurenuoc said the 2007 annual school census data showed that of the total number of children who had access to basic education, only 45.3% completed Gr 8.
"The other 54.7% of the children did not complete a full nine years of basic education," he said.
"There are a plethora of reasons for the poor access and completion rates," he said.
He said the contributing factors had been well researched and documented by the National Research Institute.
He said NRI had clearly shown that parents, guardians and caregivers "do not have the financial capacity to pay school fees".

Google Insight

The story of how the two genius who created what will revolutionize the search engines is an inspirational insight. This is not an impossible example. Maximize the brain capabilities now for our benefit. Not just for profit but for the satisfaction of achievement.

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/31862

This sort of story is good for awareness to Sialum students who are attending colleges and universities. At the same time it can inspirational to the ones who at the primary schools within Sialum local level government. From nothing the two geniuses came up with this search engine. Even before they them launch their business, they offered to a company which rejected the offer. It is believe the company the rejected the offer may be regretting.

The students of Sialum need to have a push at their back to make heap and bounds. Since Sialum is a rural based local level government such story of successful businesses and innovation will have positive impact to the future generation. This should become a motivating factor for the students and children to study hard. Their sweat will be pay them later in their dream career.

The children’s capabilities are encouraged when they are young and adventurous to explore their nicely knitted brain capacity

Scholarship Winners

In 2011 there were a good number of Sialum students attending colleges and university. One particular mention is an agriculture student who is in her final year studies of Bachelor of Science in Tropical Agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Environment. Last year she was the winner of New Zealand Government scholarship scheme award and the Gerson-Solulu scholarship award. The New Zealand government gives scholarships to female students who study either Bachelor of Science in Agriculture or Bachelor of Science in Tropical Agriculture. The Gerson-Solulu scholarship is an annual scholarship awarded to Morobe Province students attending colleges and universities.

Sialum is product to have one of its students win both the awards. This relieves the parents of the burden of school fee pressure. The parents can now support their other children.

Sialum also had one of its student graduated from Geology in the same year. He was one of the winners of the Gerson-Solulu scholarship scheme. A lot of Sialum students graduated from Balob Teachers college. The graduates of the teachers college are now absorbed into the teaching pool and are currently teaching. Many of these graduated teachers are teaching in Sialum schools. About four of Sialum students will be graduating with degrees and diplomas this year. This will make a big and positive bearing to the human resource of Sialum.

Human Resource Development Sialum

Sialum is the township and headquarter of TewaeSiassi district of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It has a population of 30 000 people. The image above shows the council chamber. This where the councillors discuss the importance of Sialum academic importance. Sialum need to develop its human resource. To do this the council conclude education as the pillar to put its future generation in perspective. The way to achieve this is to pump funding into construction of elementary schools, primary schools and the technical high school. The ones who are in upper secondary are supported as well. The ones in college fall under the Gerson-Solulu scholarship which is managed by the provincial government. The council also supports students in colleges to come back to the primary schools, elementary and technical high school to address the students. They make awareness of what marks are to be achieved to enter college. The life styles in the colleges. The prospects of employment after graduation, etc. These educational awareness are carried out during the summer vacations.