Concern over high illiteracy rate

The National National

PAPUA New Guinea can reduce its high illiteracy rate by employing better strategies, a researcher says.
Dr Kilala Devette-Chee said in her research report, Illiteracy: A growing concern in Papua New Guinea, published as PNGNRI Spotlight Volume 14, Issue 7, that the “literacy level in different parts of PNG has continued to be a matter of national concern”.
Dr Devette-Chee is a senior research fellow and programme leader of the education research programme at the PNG National Research Institute (PNG NRI).
“Although the Government has taken a number of measures to improve literacy in the country, more and more students who are dropping out of school are either semi-literate or illiterate,” she said.
The strategies to reduce illiteracy include reviewing the provision of free education to allow more children to attend school; carry out awareness on the importance of education; encourage night classes for working people; and, re-establishing school libraries to promote a culture of reading.
According to Dr Devette-Chee’s study, the causes of poor literacy learning outcomes include weak teaching skills and knowledge, diverse languages, frequent teacher and student absenteeism and lack of appropriate reading books and teaching support materials.
Among many factors, the outcomes-based education (OBE) which promoted the use of vernacular languages in elementary schools with a transition period to English in grade 3 failed a lot of students due to improper implementation.
Dr Devette-Chee said, in her report, that although there had been a slight improvement in the literacy rate, it was questionable as to why the literacy rate has been increasing at a low pace over the last two decades. Some of the reasons stated in the report for many Papua New Guineans still being illiterate are:

  • LACK of affordable education facilities and learning resources;
  • THE failed “bridging to English approach” in the outcomes-based education/curriculum;
  • ILLITERACY among parents;
  • INADEQUATE awareness;
  • SOCIAL barriers and gender norms; and,
  • POVERTY