Dept plans to have church rep

DEPARTMENT of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Secretary Fr Jan Czuba says there are plans to have a church representative in the education system soon.
He told the Holy Trinity Teachers’ College students, teachers and parents that the representative would be able to raise issues concerning education with the government.
Mt Hagen’s Holy Trinity is a church-run institution. Members of the the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct and Czuba visited the collegethis week.
“We will be having an Act in place where a church representative will be in place to talk to the government and address concerns and issues,” Czuba said.
The Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct is a partnership between PNG and Australia to support the development of ethical and capable public sectors.
It aims to share experiences between PNG and Australians on how to improve governance and service delivery at national, provincial and district levels and encourage values-based decision-making in the public service.
A total of 2500 Papua New Guineans have benefitted from the precinct that include short courses, diplomas and degree programmes.
It is focused on the strengthening of two educational institutions — the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Business and Public Policy and the Pacific Institute of Leadership and Governance.
College principal Michael Miamel said teacher training was a “very challenging task” and such visits were inspiring.
“This college has a total of 647 students who are currently undertaking their degree and diploma courses,” he said.
“Training teachers is a very big challenge and your being here is encouraging.”
Miamel said they were doing all they could to produce quality teachers.