Teacher: We’re struggling with policy

Education

THE tuition fee-free policy of the Government has made it difficult for teachers to teach the increased number of students in classes, a teacher says.
Michaelyn Sosori, a senior teacher at the Hohola Demonstration School in Port Moresby said this  on Friday during celebrations to mark World Teachers Day.
The theme of this year’s World Teachers Day was “Teaching in Freedom, Empowering Teachers”.
“Because of the free education policy, all the children who have stayed out of school have now come into the classrooms and increased the number of students in classes. This has made it very hard for the teachers to teach the students in the classroom,” Sosori said.
“Actually, the student to teacher ratio in the classroom is 1:45, however, currently the number has increased and the current ratio is about 1:60.”
Sosori also appealed to the Government to increase salaries of teachers around the country because they have been working very hard to ensure that education reforms were implemented.
“The teachers have been working very hard in the classrooms with the current reform by the government and they’ve been doing a lot of work,” she said.
“We expect the government to look into the salaries of the teachers and lift the salaries for all the teachers in the country.
“Teachers have raised so many professionals such as doctors, nurses, lawyers and parliamentarians who are right now in their offices and without the teachers, they won’t be holding the positions in the offices.”