Education Department launches website

THE Education Department launched its website www.education.gov.pg on Monday.
Education secretary Dr Joseph Pagelio said in a developing country like Papua New Guinea, most of our students, teachers and parents did not have affordable and easy access to the internet.
“I am sure this will change very quickly in the coming years,” Dr Pagelio said.
He said the website was a window that would enable the world to see the efforts and achievements of
the department, the students, parents and schools in PNG and was designed to give voice to students in the elementary, primary and post primary sectors.
“It also has information for parents/guardians and teachers in those sectors.
“PNG, because of its huge diversity in languages, customs and cultures represents a unique and very challenging environment in which to educate its citizens, many policies and programmes, especially in elementary education are tailored specifically to meet our particular needs.
“What we are doing here is of considerable interest to educators around the world,” Dr Pagelio said.
He said national institutions like the technical and business colleges, primary teachers colleges and
national high schools also had the opportunity to present various information about their
programmes and activities to the public, past and current students, sponsors and the business community.
He said the department expected many teachers and parents to question if this website was justified in the development of education.
“The answer lies in an understanding of what internet is and, more importantly, what the Education Department wants to use the internet for,” Dr Pagelio said.
 Education Department’s IT advisor Karl Turnbull said PNG might be one of the first countries to have launched a website that gives information on each school in PNG.
Mr Turnbull urged everyone to make comments on the web for the department to make improvements.
The website is funded by AusAID and took about four years for the compilation of every data on the website
while the actual creation was done in eight months.