Activist prepares petition challenging OBE

 AN NGO leader will be petitioning the government to do away with the outcomes-based education (OBE) approach of teaching and learning,  describing it as a fake.

Steven Andambo, from the Millennium Good Governance office wants his 30-page submission to be presented to the Education Minister through Madang Governor James Gau.

Andambo’s petition includes a collection of critiques and objections of the OBE from the two daily newspapers.

He said on Monday that since the education reform 18 years ago, the OBE trial was taking too long to bear any tangible results and therefore should be done away with.

Some major points raised in his petition was that the OBE was burdensome on teachers; that it caused discrimination between disadvantaged children and more suited to urban children; the lack of necessary resources; nil data showing that the old system had failed; OBE was a rejected system in other countries; it has breached the Education Employment Act;  failure to train elementary school teachers for the OBE; and that the OBE was illegally introduced without proper approval from government.

 Andambo said that he was hoping to have an audience with the province’s bureaucrats and the general public yesterday at the provincial government headquarters to gauge support.