A young community learning centre teacher in Gomore broke down in tears as she realised teachers like herself were not forgotten when a new MOA for their training was signed.
Digicel PNG Foundation on Tuesday signed the partnership agreement with 4L Training and Consultants Limited for the Community Learning Centre (CLC) Tisa Training Program.
The signing took place at the Gomore CLC in Central Province, an hour’s drive out of Port Moresby. This was witnessed by parents and family of the small CLC students and James Morrissey, an important friend of the patron of Digicel Foundation, Dennis O’Brien, who had travelled from Ireland in the morning.
CLC Tisa Program is designed to provide teacher training, board mentoring and workshops for CLCs in rural, remote and marginalised communities.
Facilitated by 4LTC, the agreement sealed the deal for Digicel Foundation to fund the Tisa Program, in its 8th year, an investment of K95,000.
The training ensures community teachers are empowered with appropriate child-centred pedagogical skills and capabilities to effectively deliver quality early childhood literacy and numeracy, a cognitive knowledge acquisition course of study.
These are volunteer teachers from informal elementary schools in settlement and rural communities, who are serving with passion to bring change to their little communities through little children.
Sharing her experience on how far she has come, Gomore CLC teacher, Ragarutu Kila, was very emotional, recalling how she, as a young village girl sitting near the road, desired to lend a hand in changing the narrative of her community. This happened when she got herself involved with the Gomore Isi Learning School, eventually paving a way to get herself certified as an early childhood school teacher.
“Even though we do not get paid, it is out of Love and Passion that we teach these children,” Ms. Kila said tearfully as she recalled the parable of the seed sower, told to her by the Foundation CEO during her graduation.
Digicel Foundation CEO, Beatrice Mahuru, said the program provides a bridging program for young children in socially marginalised communities to enter the education system with basic literacy and numeracy skills.
“When the children from these CLCs graduate and enter the mainstream formal schools, they skip up to 3 grades or at least are in the top 10 of their class if they remain. This is testament of the work that is done by our teachers and the support we provide. Our approach to development is a hand-up one and not a hand-out,” Ms. Mahuru said.
“Digicel Foundation is filling the gap within the education system, to get preschool students ready for formal elementary and primary education,” 4LTC Principal, Mara Wape said.
Established in October 2008, Digicel PNG Foundation has directly invested K85.98 million (US$27.03) in rural remote and socially marginalised communities across all 22 provinces directly impacting over 785,000 people.
(Students of Gomore Isi Learning School celebrate the agreement signing with Gomore community, teachers, parents and 4LTC principal, Mara Wape, visiting Irish media guru, James Morrissey, and Digicel Foundation CEO, Beatrice Mahuru)