In low economic environments, families have to make the choice to support only some of their children’s education financially and therefore some of their children miss out ...

By Dr Patricia Paraide

The Papua New Guinea National Education Plan 2005-2014 aims to increase access to basic education for all school-age children, particularly those at the age of six.

This is in line with the need to provide education for all. The principal objective in the elementary education sector is to expand the system until such time that there is a space available in Elementary Prep for every six-year-old child. It aims to provide all six-years-old children the opportunity to enter Elementary Prep by 2012 and complete three years of elementary education.

Support for elementary education

Elementary school is a vital level in formal education. This is where young children can learn a lot about the basic skills and knowledge, which they can draw on and apply when they advance to Grade 3 in lower primary school, and further to the upper levels of education. Elementary school level is where students should be assisted well so they can master the basic literacy, numeracy and other basic skills and knowledge. Studies by NRI have found that in many cases, this level of education is not well supported in terms of infrastructure, qualified, effective and committed teachers, professional support for existing teachers, teaching and learning resources, and monitoring of teachers’ teaching performances and students’ learning.

In some cases, personnel who have not had any formal training are used to teach in elementary schools. This could be because the communities and the parents have not yet realised the value and importance of this level of school. Elementary education is the foundation level of formal schooling and should be given serious thought by the education authorities, the various levels of government, the communities, and the parents.

Financial and support, in kind, is needed from everyone so that this level of school can begin to produce a population that Papua New Guinea will be proud of in future.

School fee is an issue for parents in low economic environments and this leads to many six-year old children not being enrolled in school when they should be. The AusAid’s plan to support free education at this level will go a long way in supporting the many families who cannot afford their children’s school fees.
This is aid money well spent and means that every child is given a chance to have at least a three-year basic education.

This financial support will strengthen the NDOE’s work towards its goal – ‘improve the net admission rate of six-year-old in elementary prep by 2012’.

The 2007 provincial net admission rates are generally low and range from 2.8 percent to 32.7 percent. NRI studies have found that many factors contribute to the current low net admission rate. These include:

• parents’ inability to pay school fees;

• Lack of space in current elementary schools to enroll all six-year old children;

• older children are given first preference during enrolment;

• repeats in elementary grades take up classroom spaces for six-year-old children;

• some schools are still applying biannual intake;

• parents wait until their children are older before they enroll them; and

• parents are not interested or motivated to send their children to school.

In order to improve the net admission rate, these issues must be addressed immediately by the national, provincial and district education authorities, the school administrations and boards of management, and the school communities.

Support for primary education

One of the goals of the MDGs is the achievement of universal basic education. Basic education in Papua New Guinea includes elementary and primary education. One of the ‘Education for All’ goals is to ensure that by 2015 all children have access to free and compulsory primary education of good quality. It is not certain if this goal will be achieved by the specific date, given Papua New Guinea’s many challenges regarding basic education delivery. It is also not certain how long AusAID’s support for the provision of free elementary education will last, but while it is available, the PNG Government via the national and provincial education authorities could start by substantially increasing the school subsidy for primary schools. The education authorities could commit additional funds to top up primary school subsidy so that the majority of children can access and complete the full cycle of basic education.

Elementary graduates may not enroll in Grade 3 and complete the full cycle of primary education if their parents cannot afford to pay their school fees. One major contributing factor to students’ withdrawal from formal schooling is the parents’ inability to pay their school fees.

In low economic environments, families have to make the choice to support only some of their children’s education financially and therefore some of their children miss basic education.In some cases, only the boys are supported and as a consequence, the girls are deprived of a basic education.

Funding should also be committed to support the continuous professional development of primary teachers so that they can provide quality teaching and learning support for the primary school student population.
If the majority of children can at least have quality basic education, they may be able to contribute positively to:

• the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger;

• the achievement of universal basic education;

• the promotion of gender equity and empowerment of women;

• the reduction of child mortality;

• the improvement of maternal health;

• combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases; and

• ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development; when they return to their communities.

Both elementary and primary curricula cater for these developmental issues so students who complete the full cycle of basic education can make a difference in these areas, if they choose to do so.

The completion of the full cycle of basic education is also an effective strategy to improve the literacy rate in Papua New Guinea. If students are well taught and supported in literacy, numeracy and other basic skills in both their vernacular and English language learning, then they should be able to read for information in order to support themselves wherever they may be.

Enrolling children in school when they turn six years old and providing quality education both in elementary and primary levels of school is everyone’s responsibility. All levels of government, the communities, the school administrations, the teachers and the parents must work together to identify practical strategies to improve Papua New Guinea’s net admission rate and the quality of education in the elementary and primary levels. A joint effort can make an impact on the progress in these areas.

Dr Patricia Paraide is a senior research fellow in the education studies division at the National Research Institute.

This article was published with permission from National Research Institute of Papua New Guinea. NRI website can be accessed at www.nri.org.pg

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Tom  - The need to train Elementray teachers is paramount   |2010-06-07 01:54:35 Studies have shown that children exposed and taught learning skills early in life go on to become brighter students in later part of their education. It is paramount that elementary teachers and those involved in teaching children are given the appropriate resources to be able to do a better job of this so we can have brighter students in upper schools and hopefully more and well educated human resource who can contribute meaningfully to development of this country. Reply 0   0

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