Compulsory education next

 By Dr Musawe Sinebare.

 The students can’t stay in school as their life is endangered. They have to leave and get out of the classroom or the school.  

For as long as the school remains closed, the students are out of school. 

The recent story on the out-of-school children are the result of the growing number of students not actively participating in school.

We think of the students of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville who missed school during the crisis. 

A generation of students have been denied access to education.  

Most of them are now 30 or 40 years old and missed out on educational opportunities.  

They can’t even write their own name because educational opportunities were denied as a result of the internal conflict.  

• Teenage pregnancies: More often than not, it is the girl-child who is affected most when they fall pregnant.  

The pregnant girl is compelled to leave school, adding to the worsening retention indicators for PNG.  

PNG’s teenage pregnancy record is a testimony to this growing trend where school-age girls leave school because they are pregnant.  

Many of them could not re-enter the education system because of the stigma associated with teenage pregnancies.

As students mature while in school and approach adolescence, a boy-girl relationship is not uncommon. Their curiosity as they mature leads them to a deeper relationship which often results in girl student falling pregnant and it is she who sacrifices her education by leaving school to care for the child.

• Bullying and anti-social behaviour in school: Another growing trend seen recently is bullying and anti-social behaviour by students.  

Bullying by undisciplined and poorly-brought-up children inflict unknown anxiety and stress on the meek and mild students.  

Bullying discourages students from attending school and remains in school because they fear for their lives at the hands of the school bullies.  

Bullies impose on other mostly weaker students their definition of the situation, which is often contrary to what the teachers and the school authorities expect.  

Hence, the bullied students fear that subjecting to the bullies will contradict and oppose those of the school authorities which might get them into trouble.   

It was better for them to stay out of school where they won’t have to get into the bad books of the school authority.

Bullies are a menace and school authorities have rules and regulations in place to deal with them as they arise. However, bullies are not reported to authorities in fear of reprisals.  

Students affected by bullies feel it’s better to stay away from school because they will not be harassed and bullied by the bullies.  

As a result they leave school, adding towards the poor retention indicators in PNG.

Anti-social behaviour by cult practices or Generation Names are forcing students into committing offences such as inter-school fights and they become territorial, which prevents certain group of students to pass through ‘enemy territory’ to attend classes in the next school.  

Inter-school rivalry is taking a negative turn to create enmity between schools or between rival cult groups in the next school.  

Cult practices discourage positive social behaviours such as social interactions (through sports) and therefore forces students to become anti-social in their general attitudes towards others. 

• Teaching and learning is unattractive: Teaching and learning is often unattractive to retain students in a class and in school.  

Students who find teaching and learning episodes boring have no compelling reasons to remain in school so they exit sooner than they came in.  

They find life outside of the classroom with their peer groups attractive when they attend to many family obligations and social activities. 

Teachers have a duty to make their teaching interesting to students.  

Teachers have a duty to prepare and deliver interesting lessons not only with a view to deliver the official curriculum but motivate students to continue attending class, enjoy teaching and learning activities and remain in school to complete their entire education cycle.

• Seasonal or occasional events: There are other seasonal or occasional events that force students to leave school and drop back in schools whenever they feel comfortable to return.  

For example, whenever there are special events such as a big feast, weddings, deaths, harvests or ceremonies that distract their attention, students often leave school to be there where the action is.  

Since a school is located within a community in many cases, whenever the community has some important activities going on, it naturally affects students’ attention to learning. Students leave school to attend to these events. 

Conclusion

The Retention pillar of the Universal Basic Education is to do with retaining the cohort of students entering the general education system in PNG.  

A student entering elementary grade is to remain in the system for the full education cycle and only leave school after completing Grade 12 education.  

Leaving school any time in between before completing Grade 12 only adds to the poor retention rate.

Why do students leave school at various stages of their education journey before completing grade 12? Many factors that contribute towards the poor retention rates have been highlighted in this commentary.  The Government has addressed the school fee problems faced by many parents over many years through the introduction of the TFF policy.  

Many parents are now happy that their children cannot leave school just because there is no school fee.  

Many students are now flocking into the schools and the school’s limited classroom spaces are now overcrowded because the state took up the burden off the parents’ shoulders.

The challenge is now on the state and all stakeholders (teachers, parents, school management, school boards) to do everything within their power to ensure that they address the many factors that force students out of school.  

This effort to address factors that affect retention rate requires all stakeholders to do their utmost best to prevent or even minimise the number of students leaving school early even before they complete the full cycle of general education. 

One of the policy interventions available for the Government is to introduce compulsory education from elementary to grade 12 as once mooted by former Education Minister James Marape.  

The free education policy was toyed around by many past governments but the O’Neill Government took the challenge and introduced Tuition Fee Free policy, which is currently under implementation.  

That policy is a popular policy with the majority of the voters at the last election. It will take a foolish government to remove the TFF policy.

Just as TFF is a successful policy intervention to address the Access pillar of UBE, I believe the current or a future government will find it favourable to introduce compulsory education to address the Retention domain of UBE agenda at the next election.  

Compulsory education creates a new window of opportunity to help develop the human capital of PNG as espoused in the PNG Vision 2050.  

After the country’s extractive industries are depleted, the gains captured in the Sovereign Wealth Fund (futures fund) could be utilised to fund compulsory education, which would provide a new leash of hope for the development of human capital, especially the general education of the population, which is critical to the sustainable development of PNG within the plan period of the PNG Vision 2050.