The Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA held a scholar’s presentation on Friday for the four recent scholars who studied in Japan under the JICA SDG Global Scholarship program.
Two of these Papua New Guineans graduated from masters programs and the other two from short-term training programs.
This year marks 50 years of Japan’s official development assistance to Papua New Guinea.
JICA PNG Chief Representative, Matsuoka Hideaki said, “When we look at the history of our cooperation, human resource development is one of the most prioritized areas and so far, we can see some tangible outcomes such as the four training participants.”
Under the JICA Development Studies Program Framework, JICA offers three types of long-term scholarship programs to academics, researchers, policy and technical officers to pursue their Masters and PhD at Japanese universities - the Agriculture Studies Networks for Food Security (Agri-Net), Human Resources Development in the Mining Sector Program (KIZUNA), and SDGs Global Leader program.
On behalf of the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST) and Secretary for DHERST Fr Jan Czuba, First Secretary of DHERST John Karani acknowledged the Government of Japan for their support.
“Education is not only a gate way to personal growth and development, but also a powerful tool for driving social and economic progress,” said Karani.
The four graduates each presented their thesis and training reports. Mathematics Lecturer from Sacred Heart Teachers College, Augustine Mara, studied for 2 and a half years at the Naruto University of Education. His research topic was on the Pre-service Teachers’ Typical Misconceptions and difficulties in the Decimal number system with the four arithmetic operations: The case of Primary Teacher Training colleges in PNG’.
Eileen Saiyomina from the Department of National Planning and Monitoring studied since November 2021. Her research topic was on the ‘Impact of the Resource Boom on the Agriculture Sector in PNG: a Dutch Disease Perspective’.
Short term courses training participants included Jeremy Goro from the National Research Institute who’s training program was ‘Capacity Development- Education Policy Formulation and Analysis for Learning Improvement’ and Violet Loi from the National Capital District Commission who trained in ‘Design and Maintenance of Semi Aerobic Landfill Site (Fukuoka method).
“We are hopeful that they will utilize their training and play vital roles on the development of Papua New Guinea which will lead to the advancement of the Japan and PNG partnership,” reiterated Deputy Chief of Mission, Shinichi Tamamitsu.
More than 4,500 Papua New Guineans have been trained under JICA. In PNG, JICA offers both short- and long-term trainings to public servants.