Church eyes exchange programmes to boost English

National

The education department of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is supporting parishes and schools to establish partnership with churches abroad to enable exchange programmes that focus on improving teaching English.
Church education secretary Elisha Waga said the church was supporting schools to establish partnerships with overseas missions to train teachers and students to teach and understand English.
Waga, who is based at the church headquarters at Ampo, Lae, said the partnership for English language training and development would be to address the drop in the standard of English in schools due to the widespread use of mobile phones.
Waga said the department had encountered problems with teachers and students speaking and writing proper English in schools because they relied too much on electronic devices.
“With establishing partnerships with overseas missions, we are encouraging schools to give priority to English,” Waga said.
“We have made a commitment and have support from key churches overseas.”
Waga said the way forward for developing the proper use of English by teachers and students would be to get training from countries that speak and write English only.
“The proper use of English language is one of students’ greatest weaknesses,” Waga said.