Department of Education

The National District Services under the Department of Education facilitated the training which started on Monday, 3rd of July, and ends this Friday.

The focus is to standardized the programming component under the theme “Quality Training for Quality Teaching and Learning."

NCD education service, first acting secretary Peter Kants spoke at the opening of the week-long in-service training for NCD teachers.

This report launched early this month is for the Literacy Enrichment and Education Development (LEED) Program. With one of the key aspects of the LEED Program is the training of teachers to know how to use the Bilum Books Standard Based Curriculum for English teacher guides and student books.

The Bilum Books SBC English is an all in one literacy program designed to teach the skills of English to students no matter their mother tongue.

Assistant secretary of early childhood education, Michael Mera, said the minimum operating standards is a set of guidelines that enables provinces to make recommendations to the education department.

“The minimum operating standard is policed by the school inspectors,” explained Mera.

“So the inspector, upon request by the provincial education board (PEB), will visit the school and follow through the minimum guidelines to see whether the school has complied with it.”

Some of the factors that will be taken into consideration include:

The launch coincided with the official opening of the 2023 academic year at Dapu Primary School in Vanimo and in West Sepik.

PIE is an eight-year Australian funded investment designed to improve access, equity and student learning outcomes in the early grades. The program operates at the national and subnational level in four target locations of Enga, Central, West Sepik and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Secretary for the Department of Education Dr. Uke Kombra said that teachers and students around the country must take note of school term dates for Primary and Secondary schools.

As instructed, the previous school terms dates have been revised and changed and now coincide with the election dates.

Adjustments were only made to school terms 2 and 3, and not term 4.

The school calendar as per revised and instructed goes;

Yesterday, Tuesday March 01, the Ambassador to Japan, H.E Nobuyuki Watanabe handed over National Textbooks for Mathematics and Science and Tablet devices to the Department of Education.

Secretary for Education, Dr. Uke Kombra received the educational gifts on behalf of the Minister for Education, Jimmy Uguro, who was unable to attend.   

The National Textbooks development project known as the Project for Improving the Quality of Mathematics and Science Education or QUIS-ME was launched in 2016, funded by the JICA and Japanese Government including technical assistance.

“The K211 million has already been paid as of yesterday and schools should access these funds this week. Schools can use these funds to assist with their operations and also pay off credits from last year,” said Dr. Uke Kombra.

The K211 million is outstanding from 2021. The Secretary also announced the further processing of K158 million for Term 1 which should be paid this week.

The launch was officiated by the Secretary for Education, Dr Uke Kombra and the Director for the Measurement Services Unit, Anthony Arulapan.

The Port Moresby National School of Excellence principal, David Diowai proudly welcomed the guests and students to the launch. Principals from other National Schools of Excellence and Secondary Schools were also present for the occasion.

Director for the MSD, Anthony Arulapan said it’s a proud moment to finally release the result of the Grade 10 and 12 national examination 2021.

On 17^th November 2021, at the Senate in the Palais Du Luxembourg in Paris, Minister Uguro met with Madam Catherine Procaccia, both exchanged ideas and views of regional concerns also taking in account partnership in cultural, educational and climate action matters.

The 41st UNESCO General Assembly in Paris, joined Papua New Guinea and the Republic of France in discussion on the possibilities of working towards strengthening and deepening their bilateral cultural and economic relations.

The Fincorp Haus was closed with staff waiting to receive the body of late Mr Nanege and accorded him a deserving send off in recognition of his service to the department.

He passed away on 11 October after suffering a short illness leaving behind a job he devoted his life to, his family and friends. Late Japheth from Laiagam District in Enga Province was the first officer to be farewelled in the car park due to the imposed COVID-19 restrictions.