Blame the teachers, not the curriculum

Letters

WHILE the education standard in Papua New Guinea is of grave concern to citizens and stakeholders, the outcome-based curriculum (OBC) adopted by PNG over the years continues to be critiqued and blamed for the drop in the quality of education.
The standard-based education/curriculum (SBE/C) is thought to be the rescue package.
And surely it will take a time equally proportionate to the lost decade to recover.
This means PNG might see a quality and affordable education system in two decades’ time, or continue to struggle for one.
However, I am of the view that there is no problem with either curriculum.
OBE was OK in theory and design except practice. The implementers were not ready and receptive of the change. They were psychologically defeated by the foreign terms and concepts used.
Teachers were inducted by few officers who went for the training of trainers (TOT) workshops/in-services and trained only on how to plan and programme the syllabus but nothing on curriculum innovation and adaptation was delivered.
Most elderly teachers, especially Pacific-Series radicals, were given technical knockout by Spady’s OBE terms and concepts that were perceived to be foreign. Dictionaries and thesaurus were needed most during the implementation trial stage in 2004 and 2005 for those old timers. They were strong opponents of OBE until its disbanding in 2015.
The OBE curriculum was criticised as having been developed by foreign consultants and irrelevant but this is not true. It was relevant and appropriate for Papua New Guineans. The outcomes, strands or sub-strands, indicators and activities were designed to be progressive and consequential from
simple to complex or known to unknown.
The teachers have to be imaginative, sensitive, creative, innovative and productive to translate the syllabus into a learning avenue for students.
This has been lacking in teachers because they also lack research skills as well as school-based curriculum design, development and innovation skills.
Even to date, young graduate teachers also need sound content knowledge in different subject areas so that they can plan accordingly in the various grades they teach.
The application of content knowledge in real terms means employing relevant teaching methods and pedagogies per subject to make the learning meaningful to the diverse brains that are eager to receive information.

JK