Back home to Wales after 25 years teaching in PNG

By JAMES GUMUNO
WELSH teacher David Ogles is packing his bags to return home after 25 years of teaching in Papua New Guinea.
David, from Caerphilly in Wales, arrived in the country as a volunteer in 1993 when he was 25 years old.
He taught Mathematics and Computer in schools around the country.
David was a soldier in the British army before become a tradesman then a teacher.
He taught for one-year before joining the Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO), a United Kingdom-based organisation
He is the only boy in a family of five, pampered by four sisters.
He had never heard of PNG but took up the challenge when told he was to come and teach here.
His first assignment was teaching Maths at the Kandep High School in Enga.
The environment and people’s lifestyles were completely different from his own land. But he noted a similarity in the sense of humour. He continued to stay in Kandep to learn more about the people and their culture.

“ The people are very friendly. That’s the thing I love about Engans. I will forever be a Kandep boy by heart.”

In 1996, he was told to leave Kandep because of the deteriorating law and order issue.
He went back home but returned in the middle of 1997 as an overseas contract officer.
During his six years in Wabag, David worked with Charles Bana and Wabag MPs Sam Abal and Robert Ganim to develop two high schools in Kopen and St Pauls Pausa to get secondary status.
In 2001, he moved to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville to teach at the Hutjena High School. In 2006, he returned to Pausa.
“The people are very friendly. That’s the thing I love about Engans. I will forever be a Kandep boy by heart.”

In 2007, he was recruited by Hagen Secondary School principal John Mamb to teach Mathematics and Computing. One of his biggest achievements was seeing the building of three computer laboratories.
David and his colleagues connected all the teachers’ offices, school library, administrators’ office and school computers, scanners and printers to a network server accessed by teachers and students.
He also conducted in-service training for teachers.
He is concerned about the lack of teacher in-service programmes and school inspections.
He believes it is one of the major contributing factors to the poor education standard in the country.
“Many students are intelligent but it is the lack of support from the Education Department and the Government on teachers which fails the students.”
“Teachers play a major role in students’ learning but if teachers are not trained or inspected regularly, it affects the quality of their output in the classroom.”
He was also involved in developing the Teachers’ Syllabus for Lower Secondary Mathematics and Design and Technology.
David is leaving at the end of the month back to the cooler climate of home, so much different to the hot sun near the equator.
His 25 years’ experience in PNG will be hard erase from his memory.
“The people are extremely friendly and hospitable. Sometimes, I wake up in some villager’s house after a night out with colleagues and friends. They would make me a cup of tea with biscuits and send me back.”