Calls to introduce ACE system in schools

THE government should not only abolish outcome-based education but go a step further by introducing the accelerated Christian education (ACE) in the elementary school system, Joseph Geparo says.
Geparo, principal of Maximise Well Christian School, in Lae, Morobe, made the appeal to government.
He said they were part of a growing number of private schools around the country now using the ACE curriculum, which uses phonetic to teach reading and producing excellent results with children at an early age.
Geparo said the established Papua New Guinea Accelerated Christian Education Schools Association could become a think tank for assessing, evaluating, proposing and directing a new reform in close consultation with the curriculum division of the education department and the education task. 
“Learning should be concentrated on students rather than teachers tea­ching students,” he said.
“The way to effective learning is the acquisition of sound reading skills.
“If students are made to move through the education system without developing reading skills at the foundational level, they will not perform.”
g the emphasis has always been on the teacher, all learning activities are centred on the teacher, as a result, teachers have been considered the repository of knowledge,” he said.
“The knowledge refers to factual information or data that children needed to learn and a teacher would be the one who gives direction, instruction, and explains concepts and methods of solving problems, teachers become a channel for all information to flow through,” he said.
“OBE is about shifting learning emphasis from teacher concentration to the students, this means that shift is now from teaching to learning and in a nutshell OBE is about enabling students to learn what is needed to be learnt all by themselves and teacher assuming the role of a helper or supervisor,” he said.
He said the OBE approach to learning was the new trend in education reform across the globe but it had been criticised for its poor results because it was forced on teachers without proper in-service training and awareness campaigns.
He said the OBE text books were designed for students to read, develop lexical knowledge, comprehension skills and aural and oral and writing skills. 
“The door way to learning effectively under this programme is the acquisition of sound reading skills, if students are made to move through the education system without developing effective reading skills at the foundational level, they will not perform well using the outcome-based education,” he said.
“Students are not being prepared well to read so how can we expect them to do all the activities required of them in that text book at the primary level.”