Amet tags OBE a national tragedy

MADANG Governor Sir Arnold Amet has described the Outcome- Based Education (OBE) curriculum as an absolute nonsense.
Sir Arnold said this during a three-day visit to the Bundi and Usino LLG area this week.
Yesterday, he travelled by helicopter to Kombofari and Omosaperi villages, bordering  Madang and the Eastern Highlands, with Kurumbukari as the last stop today.
Whilst speaking to Brahmin High School staff and students on Monday night, he mentioned that his education vision for Madang would be for all children at school age to start school and that education should be free for them.
Sir Arnold stressed that currently there was a lot of push outs from the schools since the OBE started and that this was unacceptable.
He said that the old way of school system where children started from preparatory grade to six, then high school onwards was better.
Max David, founder and station manager of Brahmin, said “the success of the OBE depends entirely on the teachers”.
“Every school every where has different needs and the education department cannot apply this uniformity on everyone.”
He also said that there were health problems facing childhood that determined a child’s capabilities in school.”
The OBE, while successful for schools in urban areas which had access to better libraries and computers, had not been success stories for many schools in rural settings, the meeting was told.
Sir Arnold said he hoped to give preferential treatment to Madang students in disadvantaged areas to continue as it was unfair for them to be pushed out of Grade 8.
He said that a total of 4,000 students were pushed out of grade nine of the 5,900 that sat for the Grade 8 examinations last year.
“I don’t care what the government is doing.
“We should be able to make education free in Madang if we have to.
“We have to upgrade school capacities, double class five by shift arrangements and be able to think radical ideas for change,” Sir Arnold said.
He said the OBE was a national tragedy.