Focus on digital education, says official

PAPUA New Guinea should focus on digitalising education to keep up with the advances in technology, Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (DHERST) secretary Fr Jan Czuba says.
“Prime Minister James Marape wants all students who did not make it to higher education institutions (HEI) to study through ‘blended learning’ system using Moodle and there will be subsidies for that arrangement as well,” he said.
“With this practice, institutions will make additional income while we work on helping students who miss out on selections.
“This Government does not want to leave any child behind.
“We will discuss with institutions on how they can introduce and manage a ‘blended learning’ system and we will also provide training on how to use Moodle.”
He said he was told by the Government to introduce a digital library for all HEIs.
“This will be announced by the prime minister when it is ready.
“If students do not make it to HEIs, it does not mean they do not have a future, there is a future for them and we will ensure that through the digitalisation of the higher education sector using Moodle and online studies.”
Czuba said digitalisation of education would increase the quality of learning in PNG because Papua New Guineans were very bright.
“We need to take advantage of our brilliance and our ability to learn quickly because we are in the 21st century and we need to keep up with the world,” he said.
Czuba added that PNG was the first country in the world to introduce the online selection programme which turned out to save time and was cost effective.