More textbooks needed, says GG

By GRACE AUKA UPNG journalism student
THERE needs to be more textbooks given to primary and secondary schools in PNG.
This was the concern raised by Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane during a presentation of four accounting text books last Thursday.
The first copies of four textbooks written by Panditha Bandara were presented to the Sir Paulias at the State House.
The books were Accounting for Grade 11 and Accounting for 12, Business Studies Grade 9 and Introductory Accounting for PNG.
Speaking on the importance of education, Sir Paulias said the Department of Education needed to fill in the gap by providing textbooks in both primary and secondary schools.
“The standard of education seems to have dropped significantly and the system needs to be competitive with other foreign countries.
“We are no longer isolated, our education system needs to be developed,” he said.
He said accounting was one of the important areas that strengthened the economy of the country and it was a great opportunity for schools in PNG to have such textbooks.
As the author and accounting lecturer in at the University of Papua New Guinea, Bandara said the first three books were new and the last one was the third revised edition of a book published earlier in 2008.
He said under the education reforms, the Department of Education has introduced accounting as a new subject for upper secondary schools and business studies for lower secondary schools without providing any teaching and learning materials.
“The first three books have been written to fill this gap. All these books were written according to the approved syllabus,” he said.