Education

Governor Allan Bird said the provincial government will commit K1 million out of the Provincial Services Improvement Program fund, and another million from the province's internal revenue to implement the policy in the initial stages, with long term plans to increase internal revenue to fully fund the implementation of this policy.

Governor Bird said the provincial government will be fair when funding the subsidy.

Specific requirements in the policy will include supporting a maximum of two children per family.

As of today, students have about 3 weeks before they resume classes.

Monday, January 29^th, is the date confirmed for Term 1 to begin.

This resumption date applies to all primary, secondary and vocational schools nationwide.

According to the Education Department’s draft calendar, Term 1 will comprise of 10 schooling weeks.

The Department of Education urges all principals and vocational centre managers to ensure that all teachers commence full teaching on that day.

(Picture: Unicef)

A new approach will be taken by the Governor to ensure this is instilled during his term as the Governor.

Agarobe announced today that starting 2018, he will be visiting schools to identify strategies that can be taken to see this vision through.

He said this during his speech at the Kwikila secondary graduation today.

Agorobe said an educated Central province is a province that can reach a whole new level.

21 of them have already been built and also officially registered in the last five years. The other 19 will be established in his second term in office, under the education development program.

Governor Wingti made this known last Friday at Baiyer District Headquarters during the commissioning of the district development authority members.

Wingti said his next dream is to partner with existing universities within the country and abroad to establish open campus in the province.

The uniforms were ordered from Thailand earlier this year. Two of the three containers already arrived in Mt Hagen and one is still in Lae.

This would be the second round after the first batch of uniforms were distributed early last year only to primary schools and not elementary schools.

“Education is important, previously we only catered for grades three to eight, now we are taking care of the elementary school students as well.

“There are 11 thousand elementary, whilst 12 thousand students’ currently in grades 3 to 8 in Mul Baiyer, the member stated.

Bisiatabu Primary School, is Papua New Guinea’s first SDA church established school, and is nestled high on the mountains of Central Province’s Sogeri plateau.

The School was established in the late 50’s and 60’s after the war and similar to remote schools around the country comes with its own fair share of challenges.

Headmaster, Roger Zega expressed concerns that the school, although having a decent population of 231 students starting from elementary to grade 8; it is dire need for teaching staff.

And sadly, some of these new schools and colleges concentrate on profit more than they do on quality.

This observation was shared by Les Roai, the Consulting Principal at Popondetta International School.

He said this when stressing on International Education Agency’s (IEA) focus on quality education for the past 41 years.

He said this has been the true driver of decision making and planning for IEA.

Roai notes that as the middle class grows rapidly in PNG, it increasingly seeks private education.  

The group, led by Deputy Secretary Titus Hatagen and other senior officials, visited schools under the TFF policy this week.

The officials visited schools around the town vicinity and the Hoskins area.

Hatagen said he was very pleased on how the TFF has been used by the schools.

He said even though funding sometimes becomes a hindrance for schools, they continue to invest in projects that aid in the children’s learning.

He added that WNB is one of the provinces that has been using the TFF accordingly to the school year calendar.

Using NAPLAN test results of 5,000 year 3 students, researchers from the University of Melbourne found the delays were equivalent to a child missing about 35 days of a school year.

Melbourne University's Cain Polidano described the findings are relatively small but significant.

"There is already a bit of evidence that shows that caesarean birth is related to a number of negative childhood health outcomes, including risks of ADHD, autism and also asthma", Dr Polidano said.

The amateur detective program was designed by teachers at Penrith Valley School, a facility for children with behavioural problems or complex emotional needs who have struggled with mainstream learning.

"A lot of them have had a lot of poor experiences in the classroom so they've got an expectation of failure that they're bringing in," principal Nic Danta said.

"And so the first stage is just to re-build that trust and connect them with education."