Chimbu teachers to protest OBE

A GROUP of teachers in Chimbu are expected to turn up in Kundiawa on Saturday to protest against the outcome based education (OBE) system.
They will also be signing a petition to present to education authorities and the government on the successes and failures of OBE.
President of Chimbu Teachers Association, Joe Gigmai, told The National from Kundiawa yesterday that this would take place during the teachers’ annual general meeting.
He said teachers in the province were not in favour of OBE and would petition for it to be removed before next year.
Gigmai said that the OBE curriculum should also be done away with as it was not in the best interest of students and teachers.
He attributed the piling work load, increase in high school dropouts, and overcrowding in classrooms, to OBE.
Gigmai said that teachers were not even remunerated well compared to amount of work they were given.
Among these issues, other factors also contributed to the additional build up of frustration that had caused teachers to petition the government, he added.
He added that 20% pay increase promised mid this year had also not been implemented and the teachers were still waiting.
Gigmai said there were about 3,500 teachers in the province and most had showed their interest which would show through the petition.
Chimbu is the second province after Southern Highlands to join the Western Highlands colleagues to oppose OBE.
Western Highlands teachers have found the Teacher’s Rights Movement and have challenged education authorities for a public debate on the successes and failures of OBE.
The Southern Highlands faction were also pushing for the idea amidst rising concerns that teachers were leaving the classrooms for better job offers with the rich liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.