The human resource of a country is important and since teachers play a direct role in their development, they need to be well-trained.
Morobe Province’s only female Early Childhood Education (ECE) mentor, Esther Anonga, appealed to the government to invest in the upskilling and inservice of teachers.
“Teachers must know the curriculum before they teach,” she stated.
“Without curriculum, I don’t think people will know the right thing to do and they must understand how to utilise it, the skills and strategies, the concepts and ideas especially.
“Teachers must be trained. Our government of the day should provide support so teachers will be well-trained so that they may know the curriculum well.
“Today, most of our bush schools do not have curriculum. Some of them are using materials from the bush and this is one of the reasons why we do not achieve our goal in Papua New Guinea.”
Anonga, who hails from Finschhafen’s Kotec LLG, is passionate about early childhood education (ECE). Equipped with a degree from the Queensland University of Technology, she joined a group of likeminded individuals to write an ECE curriculum for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG.
With over four decades of experience in the field, she has gone to remote and forgotten areas that even the curriculum materials do not reach.
She outlined that quality early childhood education gives a child the best start in life, and for that to be possible, quality teachers are needed.
“Then, we will see the change in Papua New Guinea in 20 to 50 years’ time,” she stated.