Department of Education (DoE)

Minister queries why murder suspect had multiple identities

In a statement, Minister for Education, Nick Kuman, questioned why the suspect, known as Andy Paro from Hela Province, was posing as a teacher under different names and file numbers.

“I am directing the Department and TSC to conduct a full investigation while I consider an independent team outside the Ministry to also conduct an investigation so that we clean out the mess in our systems and processes,” said the Minister.

Lupari calls for unity among education staff

Lupari made this call after meeting with the Department of Education’s senior management as well as the inter-departmental steering committee on the Tuition Fee Free Policy recently.

Lupari said education is one of the top priorities of the Government and it has to be held at the highest level.

When addressing the senior management and the members of the steering committee on TFF, Lupari stressed the importance of making sure that quality education opportunity is accessed by children in the rural settings as well.

Religious education to become a separate subject

Education secretary Dr. Uke Kombra said religious education is one component that has been captured in the Culture and Community subject under the new Standards-Based Curriculum (SBC).

The SBC learning kit is now being distributed to all 7,000 schools throughout the country. Each kit contains SBC elementary syllabuses, teacher guides and English materials.

Kombra said they will seriously look into introducing religious education, values and attitudes in the curriculum.

SBE curriculum to be fully implemented by 2019

In preparation for the full implementation of the curriculum at the elementary level, the Department of Education (DoE) has already carried out training sessions in all provinces in 2015 and 2016.

Over 17,000 elementary teachers have been trained and are ready for implementation.

7, 000 elementary schools in the country will begin the 2017 academic year with the new curriculum learning kits.

The delivery of SBC elementary syllabuses, teacher guides and English kits to all elementary schools throughout the country was launched today.

TSC taken to task over ‘foul-play’ over salaries

Alex Tui of Hos Elementary School outside the provincial capital Mendi, complained bitterly that many teachers PNG-wide “are really suffering” because certain officers in TSC and DoE, both in head office and provinces were failing to perform their duties professionally and responsibly as expected.

Tui urged TSC Chairman Baran Sori and Acting Secretary for Education, Dr Uke Kombra to start disciplining all responsible officers who failed to submit vital information to the salaries section thereby causing salary discrepancies and anomalies.