When I was in high school, I lived with my big brother who was a teacher. In those four years, I would see him bring home test papers to mark, entering the marks and then prepare report cards and assignments.
That is where I developed my interest in teaching.
My name is Henry Oue, I am from Kairuku District in Central Province. I have been a teacher for 10 years and six of those years have been spent teaching at the Tubusereia Primary School. The three years before coming here, I spent in my village at the Inauabui Primary School and then I moved to a remote school where I was head teacher there before coming to teach here.
After teaching in remote schools, I applied for a transfer to be posted closer to the city and that is how I came to teach here at Tubusereia primary School.”
My reason for wanting to be so close to the city is so that I could pursue further studies. Working in remote areas would not have allowed me to do that. Currently, I am attending the University of Papa New and taking up a Bachelor of Arts professional studies course.”
I teach Grade six, we have six grade six classes and I am teaching grade 6D.
Teaching wasn’t my first choice. My initial plan was to take up another profession, but because certain situations did not allow me to reach the goal, so I decided to pursue teaching. I wrote an interest letter to the Sacred Heart Teachers College in Bomana, NCD and I was selected to attend the college.
I was fortunate enough to be part of a group that was sponsored by the European Union so the two years spent at the college for my Diploma was taken care of by the European Union.
In teaching, we deal with students who are from different backgrounds so there are many things that we encounter in terms of their behaviour. Discipline is one of the things that we have issues with in school. I am a person who believes in discipline so most of the time during my teaching day I face a lot of issues because of the way I discipline children. We have parents coming to confront teachers when we do discipline their children, and this is an ongoing thing.
I am happy to be at Tubusereia Primary School and to have the opportunity to be able to continue my studies before I am transferred to another school that may be more remote. The location is good for me to travel to and from the city to my study center. There is a lot commitment needed when juggling my job as a teacher and taking on my studies. With my studies, I cannot take up three to four courses, while I am working so I am taking on the flexible mode with one or two courses so it balances with my job as a teacher.
Like I said, there is a lot of commitment involved. Sometimes I stay up late into the night reading because there is a lot of reading involved in my course work, but so far I am managing well.