English usage needs improving

LANGUAGE

By MICHAEL PHILIP
USAGE of “the world’s language” in Papua New Guinea is poor, according to two senior English experts, Brian Kolowa and Peter Yearwood.
Brian Kolowa is a senior educator in Papua New Guinea conducting the English language proficiency sessions at the secondary schools in Port Moresby.
Peter J. Yearwood is the associate professor of History at the University of Papua New Guinea and a joint editor for the South Pacific Journal of Philosophy and Culture.
Kolowa, 37, from Pabrapuk in Western Highlands did primary education at Kuga Pabrapuk Community School and after passing his Grade six examination in 1990 he went on to Tambul High School in 1994. However, due to tribal fights he was transferred down to Goroka Demonstration High School in 1995 where he completed his Grade 10.
After completing high school he apply directly to Divine Word Institute for the erstwhile two-year matriculation course from 1996 -1997. He later applied for the Bachelor of Arts course at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG).
In 1998 he was accepted at UPNG for the two-year Bachelor programme in Arts which he completed in 2002 and graduated in 2003.
Don Bosco Technical Secondary School at Gabutu in the National Capital District accepted him for a teaching job in 2004. He taught for one year and applied to the University of Goroka (UOG) in 2005 to do a post graduate diploma in education.
In 2006 he graduated from UOG and taught at Port Moresby Grammar School but because the school was a private institution he decided to go to a public school and that was when he ended up at Hagen Park Secondary School. He taught at the school from 2006 to 2008.
In 2009, Kolowa left Hagen Park Secondary School for Port Moresby National High School (PomNaths) where he taught Grade 11 and 12 students in information technology (IT) and computing. He then left in 2010 to teach at Gordons Secondary School.
From 2011 to 2012 he taught at Gerehu Secondary School and the following year he applied to the Urban Youth Employment Project (UYEP) and work as a senior trainer teaching basic life skills and business studies until 2016.
After 2016 he went to Australia and applied for employment rights and did an English programme early in 2017. He passed the test so the Queensland Education accepted him as a teacher to train at the state high school in Brisbane in 2017 and 2018.

Going towards the end of 2018 he got contacted by National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop so he travelled back to PNG to run the English programme funded by the governor.
“The English programme is a pilot project, I enrolled in this project in Australia and then they accepted me so with that certificate I taught in Australian schools and then I realised that it was a good programme too for PNG so I decided to take it to PNG.
“I went up the governor office and he said I needed to complete all the formalities so I went and asked the Secretary for Education Dr Uke Kombra and then he referred me to the head of the Teacher Education division Mr Allan Jim and then he ask me to do a presentation. I did the presentation on Aug 18, 2018. After the presentation I was given the green light by the assistant secretary for Teacher Education division to run the programme saying I was qualified. They asked me to do English and Maths but I couldn’t because I had no partners,” Kolowa said.
In 2019 due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) out break the programme was disrupted but later resumed when National Capital District Commission Education Services ask him to continue run the programme. The commission agreed that the English programme was a good programme and it must run in all schools in NCD.
“Because it a new programme, it has to do with English. The country’s written and spoken English is low the level of usage is low so I decide to bring this project to PNG so that country could prosper and perform well in English.
“Our students can be able to use English in their everyday lives and in today’s world everything is English. In western countries they use English to communicate to prosper in all sectors of life. So in PNG’s case we have a problem because English is our second language and education is a big thing, human resource is very important so that’s why I bring this pilot project into PNG because it will be useful.
“English is the only medium of communication so in PNG because we are a developing country. The motive behind this pilot project is training the teachers so that the teachers can be able to help the students. You travel everywhere English is the only medium of communication people use to understand things.”
About 40 per cent of the teachers are competent in English language usage, the rest (classified as strugglers, need to improve on their English language) can read, write and do the listening part but the speaking part is so hard for them so some of them use Tok Pisin in the classroom. I asked them why they were teaching in Tok Pisin and they said students couldn’t understand concepts so they try to use Tok Pisin for them to better understand.
You will not stand beside a student during examination time so always try to find some form of English so that will make it easy for students to understand. In social media you will see English usage is very low and this is a big problem to PNG.
I am thinking of establishing my own school where I can provide education through post-secondary, post primary and post elementary so that I will have to offer them two certificates; normal subject content certificate and English language proficiency so those who teachers who are competent in the English language usage we will graduate them, if they fail we will still ask them to do it again and improve.
Funding from leaders needed to support such pilot project. This programme is only taught in Australia and for you to go down there and study English will cost you a lot. I am here bringing the programme at your doorstep.
Yearwood said English usage in PNG remained a problem to students, particularly in written English.
“There’s an interesting contrast with Africa, with Nigeria because Nigerians might write nonsense but they would write a lot of it.
“I am encouraging young Papua New Guineans to balance the usage of English speaking and written English and most importantly “read a lot of books”.