Education adviser leadership praised

IN recent months, Morobe has been featured prominently in the two dailies, mainly capturing progress of standard-based curriculum (SBC) training.
This was to ensure its teachers were fully prepared/equipped with the knowledge and skills required to deliver lessons using the new curriculum come 2019 academic year.
The successive progression of such significant staff development programme in the province reflects the efforts of the hard-working and outspoken Morobe provincial education advisor (PEA).
The PEA receives able support from provincial education officers, and respective school administrators for driving the SBC awareness, in terms of capacity and resources support.
On the other hand, mastery of skills and concepts needed to effectively plan and prepare teaching programmes using the SBC approach will very much depend on the SBC trainer.
If we allow qualified and skilled people to deliver the standard-based education down to school level, both classroom teachers and students will already have a clear understanding of the expectations.
They will know what exactly the teachers will be teaching, and the students will learn thereafter.
However, knowing SBC alone will not lift quality education standards.
Mastering the SBC concepts and backed by sufficient subject knowledge will improve Morobe’s education standards if the action PEA for Morobe remains in office for a longer period.
Though, I am not from Morobe, I have been a patriotic die-hard for the vocal PEA for his robust, rigorous and outstanding comments on very sensitive education issues without fear or favour.
The PEA had openly blamed the current Government for failing the quality of education in Morobe, more linked to the non-payment of TFF funds for Morobe schools in recent years among other related issues. To this end, I still recall one of his brilliant comments that appeared in our two dailies at the start of 2018 academic year, regarding his plans to screen teachers’ qualification, academic transcripts and details of teachers’ college attended for any new graduates intending to take up teaching positions in Morobe.
His comments were after identifying some fake teachers teaching illegally in Morobe schools with falsified documents (academic transcripts, teaching certificates, etc)
I support the call by the action PEA for Morobe and recommend all MPs help allocate funds to immediately implement the teacher screening process in Morobe as a way forward.
There is already evidence of some poorly-trained and academically-unqualified teachers polluting classrooms in Morobe.
Hence, the PEA’s smart approach to filter the waste from the genuine. What happens if waste remains in our backyards?
It will continue to produce bad odour and continue to pollute the air until removed.

Ken Nandawa
Yaporolo Hali’weki