EDUCATION

India offers to train teachers

By JINA AMBA
THE India High Commission in Port Moresby aims to create a good relationship with PNG citizens, the country’s envoy says.
The Indian government has announced its support to Gordon Secondary School in Port Moresby; ts teachers will get further training in India
Indian High Commissioner Shri Inbasekar Sundaramurthi said this training was aimed at improving human resources of PNG.
Inbasekar said: “This country is blessed with natural resources and we find potential in this country. The youth are hardworking. Our duty as a brotherly nation is to provide capacity building to this country.”
“We have what is called ITEC (India Technical Economic Cooperation); it started in 1964 in which training is provided for all continents in the world. We are providing to more than 100 countries,” Inbasekar said.
“This programme is for graduates, we send them to India and we train them. There are so many courses – in health, education, engineering, etc. Candidates can select training in courses which are important to them.”
Course vary in duration from three months to six months, one year or even two yearsm, he said.
“Now my idea is I will try my best to train the teachers here. We will bring teachers from India here to train them or if it comes through the reference of the Departmement of Foreign Affairs and Trarde. If the department or the school sends a proposal to train a couple of teachers, we can using Zoom because of Covid-19.”
Inbasekar also made a commitment to donate books to the Gordon Secondary School Library.
School principal George Kenega said the opportunity given by the Indian government to train teachers and students was a welcomed news.

He said this opportunity was important as it would contribute to the development of the country and he was looking forward to this partnership.
High Commissioner of India to PNG Sundaramurthi visited Gordon Secondary School to deliver the text books as reference material for the teachers to use.
The text books will be used by department heads subject teachers will use them as reference material to extract the topics according to the PNG education syllabus to teach Grade 9 to Grade 12.
The text books are about Stem subject areas such as science (physics, chemistry, biology and lower secondary school science ), technology such as electronics and engineering, and mathematics.
The high commissioners said as the cost of transporting the books by air was quite high he would try to get the soft copies or compact discs for convenience.
He said this was the first such assistance to schools and eduation in PNG and he would do more in coming days.
Sundaramurthi said he was interested to partner with Gordon Secondary School for staff and infrastructure development.
He was happy to deliver these resource materials to the teachers a day before the birth anniversary (Oct 2) of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation of India .
He encouraged the teachers to fulfill the dream of founding father the late Sir Michael Somare by their classroom teaching which is the real nation building.
He encouraged teachers and said that a classroom was a sacred place just like a temple or a church.
Inbasekar promised that he would assist Gordon Secondary School which has been named a school of excellence, in whatever way he could as a development partner.
School principal George Kenega thanked the high commissioner saying that the schol was surprised by the gesture of support from the Indian government and appreciated the fact that the high commissioner humbled himself to personally present the books.
Due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions the high commissioner said training for interested teachers would be provided on-line as soon they have registered.
The high commissioner has also offered to provide tablests for teachers who want to study online.

Christmas present on the way for Komun

EVERY community in PNG, both rural or urban, from down the coast or up in the Highlands, relies heavily on this most vital infrastructure. And that is a road.
Whether it is moving people or cargo, a road is basically a lifeline.
A road network opens up opportunities for people in their respective communities to venture into business and in enabling villagers to transport garden produce to markets and vice-versa, bring outside goods and services into the communities. So a road of course is a basic infrastructure need on a daily basis to sustain people’s lives.
Road access contributes either directly or indirectly to the pleasant state and prosperity of a community, enabling smooth flow goods and the setup of other services as electricity, education and health facilities.
For Kum-Kulak, a community in Jiwaka’s North Waghi electorpeople there are now as excited as ever to celebrate because of their new road link that is taking shape now.
What’s more, it is pretty likely that the road would be ready for use in December, around Christmas time so it will be double festivity for the community.
The dream of a road for the Kum-Kulak community of about 6,000 people from the two tribal groups of KNK and Senglap will finally materialise.
The road will be officially opened by two local MPs in Jiwaka Governor Dr William Tongamp and North Waghi MP Dr Fabian Pok and “presented’ to the community  as a Christmas gift.
Construction work had started sometime in May this year and is expected to be completed by early December.
Kum-Kulak community leader David Kossely, when speaking on behalf of the two tribes, said the community was thankful to their two MPs for their combined funding assistance towards the road project.
Kossely further saying that this road would now instill confidence in the local farmers to making more gardens as PMV trucks and busese would be traveling into their community to take passengers and  cargoes.
This is a real joy for the community who have been hoping for ages for the construction of a roadlink. Thank you Governor Tongamp and member Pok for the construction of Kum-Kulak community road.
Coffee and garden produce from from this part of the North Wahgi electorate would be easily transported out of the area.
Thank you to MPs Dr Tongamp and Dr Pok and we the Kum-Kulak community indeed see this road as a wonderful Christimas gift that is worth celebrating and rejoicing over.