Papua New Guinea must have a student focused Education Sector Plan to achieve the government’s vision 2050 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets.
This was one of the strong recommendations made by the participants of the recent National Civil Society Coalition Consultation Workshop, held on 23rd February 2022. It was made while discussing the draft Education Sector Development Plan (2022-2026).
The one-day workshop facilitated jointly by Papua New Guinea Education Advocacy Network (PEAN) and the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) was for civil organisations to provide their views on the draft five-year Plan.
More than 30 participants from civil organisations in different sectors including education, disability, academia, private citizens, human rights and researchers and volunteers attended the consultations. This is to ensure that the draft Education Sector Plan was inclusive and covers all areas for the delivery of quality education services in the next five years. Such is necessary for human resource development in the country, something which the Education Sector has to remain focused on to achieve the government’s vision 2050 and SDG goals and targets.
Some of the participants expressed dissatisfaction over the limited time given to them especially non-state actors claiming that the plan was massive and needed thorough public consultations with every key sectors involvement.
They further raised concerns that half of education service delivery especially in the most remote parts of the country are executed by civil society groups, in particular churches and with the amount of time given for consultations, constructive feedback is also limited to inform the Plan.
Some of the key recommendations put forward by the workshop participants included:
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Education must be inclusive and accessible by all school aged children including slow learners and children with disabilities. Accessibility must be addressed at all levels from early child hood, primary, secondary to TVET.
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Education Sector has to have a master plan for all infrastructure to meet standards in all levels of education in order to meet the needs of the children, in particular children with special needs;
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Make sure specialists are available to train teachers to teach children with special needs at all levels of education system;
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Promoting and supporting research and development to create PNG to be a modern and relevant learning sociality such policies and plans.
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Pursue education excellence by practicing the best and highest standards of Transparency and Accountability: Promoting good governance through personal and institutional integrity, and moral, ethical and transparent and accountable practices.
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FODE and TVET should act as an alternative pathway to cater for grade 8 students. So courses for grade 9 and 10 delivered in mainstream high schools should also be taught at TVET.
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Disability sector to be recognized by the government, it’s not covered in the draft plan.
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The education plan should accommodate strategies on how to cater for and address the increasing population growth.
Professor Kenneth Sumbuk who attended the consultations said that the core values in the draft five-year Education Sector Plan are skewed and has been written based on the Public Service Leadership Capability Framework. It therefore does not reflect specific core values of the foundation the education system in PNG is built on or its underpinnings including specific expected outcomes.
He said to achieve quality, our education system should be student focused and should be transformative in terms of teaching and learning for better student experience and outcomes.
