By Patrick Matbob
February 2010
A Papua New Guinea governor has thrown out vernacular education and is fast-tracking universal education for children in his province.
Madang Governor, Sir Arnold Amet, has decided this year to teach only English in elementary schools and discard the country’s education reform policy to teach vernacular.
He has also directed provincial education authorities to ensure that all Grade 8 students in primary schools continue on into Grade 9 in secondary schools and there will be no dropouts.
Both decisions have been welcomed by parents and schools. Madang government has made the decision to do away with teaching in vernacular after experiencing difficulties in implementing the policy.
The province has 164 languages, the highest in PNG, and it has been a major challenge to cater for all language groups. Chronic shortage of money and resources has made it difficult to implement the policy effectively.
Parents and teachers have also complained about their children’s poor English language skills and have urged the provincial government and education authorities to do away with vernacular education.
Governor Amet who has made education his government’s priority, has spoken out on various occasions against vernacular education.
He believes that it has contributed to the poor English language skills amongst PNG students today.
Vernacular education was introduced in the 90s as part of the education reform policy.
Education experts believed that children who started school in their vernacular and later switched to English were better able to grasp and use the language.
This was based on studies done by the National Department of Education. Another reason was to preserve the country’s 800 languages as some languages were dying out in parts of the country.
However, Madang has many languages spoken by few hundred people and it has been a challenge to set up and run so many vernacular schools.
Parents moving around for work within the province have also faced problems because their children were unable to attend schools that were in the local languages.
This has meant that children had to attend schools that used Tok Pisin, the country’s lingua franca.
The policy also did not work well for urban areas because of the mixture of language groups and cultures.
Governor Amet has also received numerous complaints from teachers, school authorities and parents about vernacular education. Teachers were mainly concerned with the bridging part of the programme in Grade 3 when students moved from vernacular to English.
Teachers said that children were having difficulties in bridging and as a result, were unable to read well in English. They said this affected their progress into higher grades.
Madang is also taking the lead this year in pushing for universal education which means that all Grade 8 students in primary schools will automatically progress to Grade 9 in secondary schools.
The provincial education authorities have been directed to ensure the policy is implemented this year. This means there will be no dropouts after primary school and secondary schools have to drastically increase their intakes.
Madang has already opened new secondary schools last year and more will be opened this year.
Governor Amet who is responsible for fast-tracking the policy has been seriously concerned that many young people in the province have not been able to complete their education to Grade 12.
While officiating at a Grade 8 graduation in a remote school last year, the Governor openly wept when he learnt that only two of the 25 graduates would continue on to secondary school. He has described the situation as a national tragedy.
In fact, the main focus of the PNG Education Reform policy was to achieve universal education for all children up to Grade 12 and there should be no dropouts. However, achieving this policy has been difficult with limited money and resources in the education sector.
Amet told a recent education seminar in Madang that many thousands of children of school age are denied their universal human right to start school because there are no schools.
“Many more thousands are forced out at very tender ages after grade 8 and just two years later many in their early teens are also forced out after grade 10.”
He said the country’s 10-year National Education Plan (2005-2014), the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Medium Term Development Strategy (MTDS) all call for universal education.
He said that while in the current economic climate it is difficult to see how universal education can be achieved by 2014; every effort must be made for children to achieve a primary education.
“I believe the biggest developmental challenge facing our nation after 32 years of political independence is the education gap.
“Basic literacy and education are the building blocks for a nation’s human development. It is the basis on which we will develop our nation.
“It is the basis on which every Papua New Guinean will be able to meaningfully participate in social and economical development of our society.”
He said his view is that every PNG child of school age has the universal and constitutional right to start school and continue his or her education to the highest level possible.
He said it is the moral and legal duty and responsibility of every government to provide the education capacity for every child to continue to the highest level possible.
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