Polye: Parents must be involved
The National, Tuesday July 9th, 2013
By ZACHERY PER
PARENTS in the country are fast losing their grip on education for their children, acting Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Don Polye says.
Speaking at the national education conference in Goroka, Eastern Highlands yesterday, Polye said: “Education should be an issue for every family unit to create conducive environment for children to learn at home and that will be complemented in school settings.”
He said the new authority to control the education system in the country must emphasise on creating an enabling environment at home to enhance children’s education.
He said the country needed to create an education system that “embraces our own cultural identity, translating into modern changes to have a culture of belonging in the PNG way”.
Polye commended the Vision 2050 office, the University of Goroka, the Office of Higher Education and the Education Department for arranging the conference as it would lead to the establishment of National Curriculum Assessment Authority (NCAA).
He said the work of assessment authority would help to address disparities in the education system and allow the system to produce quality education for future generations.
Polye said that would lead towards achieving the medium term development goals and the seven pillars of Vision 2050.
Polye highlighted the need to teach financial management as a subject in schools to develop financial issues of budgeting, spending and savings as a new cultural norm for the future generation.
He said Papua New Guineans did not know how to manage financial resources properly and that left a vacuum for financial management skills to be taught in schools.
Polye said the new programmes to be introduced should cater for innovation skills to be taught to enable citizens to be innovative and avoid being consumers of products of other people.
He applauded the efforts of joint chairmen of the conference, Associate Prof Michael Mel (UoG) and Joseph Sukwianomb (Vision 2050 office) for organising the conference.