Education department encouraged to get lifeskills courses into PNG classrooms

THE Department of Education has been urged to provide life skills courses in primary and high schools to prepare students when they leave school.
“Practical courses like carpentry, woodwork, know about your business, agriculture, home economics, arts and sports are important life skills students should
attain in school to prepare them for life,” said community leader Agatha Mark at a district summit in Port Moresby.
The district summit initiated by World Vision PNG was to engage community leaders from two areas in Port Moresby to talk about issues affecting communities and how they could be addressed.
Representatives from the communities of Hanuabada and 9-Mile presented their community’ action plans with facilitation by the World Vision design team in the past three months.
Among the issues listed, Mark, a community leader at 9-Mile, emphasised that life skills courses learnt in school would determine the future of a child since not everyone who completed school would get a job in the country.
“When youths leave school and couldn’t find jobs they get themselves into illegal activities because they do not know how to be productive in their community, therefore I think it is important for life skills to be included in the curriculum,” she said.
In both plans, the communities highlighted priority development issues including education (early childhood education), health, life-skills training, law and order, substance abuse, and gender-based violence, among others.
World Vision’s Southern Zone manager and urban programming lead, Stella Rumbam, thanked all partners and community representatives for being part of the summit and bottom-up planning.
“The communities have taken ownership (of programme planning) and now have plans,” she said.
“They can now go to anyone including their local leaders with these.
“They have identified the issues, identified the causes and now want to address these.”
World Vision is a Christian, humanitarian, and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities in Papua New Guinea to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
Since 1979, World Vision has been working in the country together with communities, addressing child well-being issues in health, water, and sanitation, education, gender-based violence, child protection, community resilience and economic development, and disaster risk management.