Kolowa’s special feat

By MICHAEL PHILIP
Nothing was impossible just like what Brian Kolowa found out when he became an English trainer at Brisbane State High School in Australia from 2017 to 2018.
It was a feat for Kolowa after passing his English teaching course at Queensland Education Institute in 2016.
Kolowa, from Pabrobuk in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, had since returned to PNG.
But the Australian achievement was not all for nothing. The training and the job attachment had enabled him to see the importance of English language usage and he planned to conduct English language proficiency sessions in secondary schools in the country.
Kolowa was no different to the other children when he did his primary education at Kuga Pabrobuk community school in Western Highlands.
He completed grade six in 1990 and went on to Tambul High School in 1994.
However, due to tribal fighting, he was transferred to Goroka Demonstration High School in 1995 where he completed grade 10.
He applied to Divine Word Institute and did two years matriculation studies from 1996 to 1997.
He matriculated and applied to the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) for bachelor of arts studies.

“ I need support from leaders for such a pilot project. This programme is only taught in Australia and for you to go down there and study English, it will cost you a lot. I am bringing the programme to your doorstep.”

In 1998 he entered UPNG, completed the course in 2002 and graduated in 2003.
He applied for a teaching position at Don Bosco Technical Secondary School at Gabutu in the National Capital District and got accepted in 2004.
He taught for one year and applied to University of Goroka (UOG) in 2005 to do a post graduate diploma in education.
He got into UOG and in 2006 he graduated and taught at Port Moresby Grammar School, a private institution.
However, he decided to go to a public school and ended up at Hagen Park Secondary School and taught from 2006 to 2008.
In 2009, Kolowa left Hagen Park Secondary School for Port Moresby National High School (PomNaths) where he taught grades 11 and 12 students in information technology (IT) and computing. He left PomNaths 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 worked as a senior trainer with the UYEP, teaching basic life skills and business studies to urban youths in Port Moresby until 2016.
After 2016, he went down to Australia, applied for employment rights and did his English programme in early 2017.
He passed the English examination and the Queensland Education took him on as an English trainer at the State High School in Brisbane.
Towards the end of 2018, he was asked by National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop to run the English programme so he returned to PNG.
“The English programme is a pilot project. I enrolled in this project in Australia and they accepted me. With that certificate, I taught in an Australian school and then realised that it’s a good programme for PNG as well so I decided to take it here,” Kolowa said.
In 2019, due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the programme was disturbed but it resumed when National Capital District Commission Education Services (NCDCES) asked him to continue.
The commission agreed that the English programme was good and it must be taught in all schools in NCD.
“The country’s written and spoken English is low, level of usage is low, that’s why I decided to bring this project to PNG so that the country can prosper and perform well in English.
“In western countries, they use English to communicate to prosper in all sectors of life. In PNG’s case, we have a problem because English is our second language and education is a big thing.
“The motive behind this pilot project is training the teachers so teachers can teach students well in English,” Kolowa said.
Kolowa planned to establish his own school to provide training in post-secondary, post-primary and post-elementary so teachers would have two certificates; normal subject content certificate and English language proficiency.
He said teachers who were competent in English language usage would graduate but if they failed, they would repeat the training.
“I need support from leaders for such a pilot project. This programme is only taught in Australia and for you to go down there and study English, it will cost you a lot. I am bringing the programme to your doorstep,” Kolowa said.