Education as Empowerment: Creating Infrastructure for Universal Access & Achievement

 

Background: In 1993, the government introduced the much-debated education reform of using native languages in schools until Grade 3 (where formerly students learned exclusively in English). The repercussions of this reform continue to echo as some educators applaud the reinforcement of native language and culture while others bemoan the effect the reform has had in delaying the learning of English—the exclusive language of upper primary and secondary school instruction, as well as nationwide matriculation exams, but reportedly fluently spoken by only 2% of the population. This language barrier is the largest factor to the approximately 50% failure rate of students on the high school matriculation exam, and the less than 1% rate of the population who make it to one of the country’s six young universities.

Key Issues:

Higher education bottleneck
English education
Outcome Based Education reform
Loss of native languages

Panelists

Hon. James Marape

Hon. James Marape is a member of the National Parliament from Southern Highlands Province, currently serving as PNG’s Minister of Education. From 2007-2008, he served as the Vice Minister of Works & Transport, and from 2001-2006 as Assistant Secretary of Policy Development for the Department of Personnel Management. Prior to this, he consulted for the Landowners & Southern Highlands Provincial Government and worked for the Gigira Development Corp Ltd. and the PNG Institute of Medical Research. He received his BA in Environmental Science & Public Policy from the University of Papua New Guinea.

Teng Waninga

Mr. Waninga is the Head of the Curriculum and Teaching Department at the University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea where he teaches courses in curriculum policy, planning, developing, implementing and evaluating school curriculum in PNG specifically the OBE curriculum. He has been a researcher/consultant with UNICEF, OXFAM [New Zealand], Asian Development Bank and Australian Aid funded projects. He holds a Certificate in Primary teaching, a Bachelor of Education in Tertiary Teaching and a Master of Education (Honors) degrees from the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia. He has taught in primary (five years), secondary (two years), primary teachers' college (11 years) and University (five years) and is currently taking a leadership role to educate lecturers at the University of Goroka as well as other primary and secondary schools on the OBE Education Reform and curriculum.

Evelyn Pusal

A graduate of the University of Goroka and a secondary education teacher in Papua New Guinea, Ms. Pusal is currently an East West Center Scholar at the University of Hawaii. She is on a US State Department fellowship and is completing the final stages of her Masters in Education Technology program. An Instructional Designer (ID), Ms. Pusal has worked on many collaborative e-learning initiatives in Micronesia and Papua New Guinea and continues to pursue research and development in issues pertaining to Distance Education in the greater Pacific. She is an ID specialist with the Pacific Voices Group and the Pan Pacific Distance Learning Association in Hawaii that provides online training for teachers in Micronesia & Hawaii. Evelyn currently works for the Distance Course Design & Consulting (DCDC) group at the College of Education at the University of Hawaii.

Panel Time and Location

Sunday, February 28, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. bldg 320-105 (Geology Corner Lecture Hall)