Language a barrier, workshop told

Islands, Normal
Source:

The National, Tuesday, May 17, 2011

LANGUAGE is one of the major barriers in the dissemination of electoral awareness information to people, a workshop has found.
Participants who were part of the three-day networking workshop for civil society organisations conducted by PNG Electoral Commission awareness team in Kokopo voiced their concerns last Friday.
They said in trying to teach people about the election it was found that English and Tok Pisin still appeared to be irrelevant languages in many rural areas.
They said illiterate voters still did not understand Tok Pisin fully and made disseminating electoral information irrelevant.
A participant from Pomio said many electoral awareness groups that had visited there in past years had failed to disseminate information to the locals, saying language was a major barrier.
ENB electoral manager Terrence Hetinu said it was evident many people there had difficulties in understanding English and Tok Pisin.