No overall drop in standard of English

I REFER to your report “English skills drop in schools: Teachers” (Aug 6).
I would like to see evidence pointing to a drop in English skills in our schools and I believe this is an attack on the outcome-based education (OBE).
As head of English department at the Port Moresby International School, I recently conducted a study on the statistics of local high schools’ performance in English.
This was for an internal school review to see if we are maintaining our edge regarding academic performance in my subject.
What I was surprised and gratified to see is, according to the latest available Department of Education school certificate examinations and certifications report (2008), that indeed we are but a lot of other schools are improving in this subject area also.
In fact, a study of the schools’ English results, based on the mean rating indices, shows that over a
period from 1997 to the most recent published report, that of the 175 sample high schools in existence since then, 68 schools have improved English results, 60 schools are maintaining steady standards, and only 47 have shown a general downturn.
I would hardly think that these statistics indicate an overall drop in English skills in our schools.
There are many reasons why there may be general downturns in academic achievements, not least of which is the quality of the teachers or their level of understanding of what OBE really means.
OBE, in fact, lays out a set of expected and measurable outcomes for a subject.
These outcomes inform both teachers and students about what is expected of them. 
They help to shape the sorts of activities designed to achieve them, and the assessment used to measure students’ skills.
OBE helps teachers and students to focus on skills which are important and programmes which foster these skills rather than delivering a content based curriculum which is spoon fed to students and regurgitated in examinations.
An example of a measurable set of English outcomes is a student’s ability to: 
* Understand the literal meaning of a text;
* Critically analyse and evaluate abstract ideas;
* Demonstrate knowledge of textual features;
* Research and apply research knowledge appropriately;
* Write accurately and fluently in appropriate genres for a variety of purposes; and
* Speak accurately and fluently in appropriate genres for a variety of purposes.
With these outcomes in mind, teachers can then design programmes which give students the opportunities to practise them and demonstrate their abilities in assessments which are designed to measure them.
These skills are not the exclusive domain of developing countries.
Also, they do not depend on a vast range of resources to teach them … certainly not beyond the reach of PNG, which has wonderful resources in its people, cultures, oral traditions and in its newspapers, brochures, church and government reports, just to name a few.
Delivery of OBE is a sensible blueprint for focused programmes and is only limited by the imagination of the teachers themselves.
To conclude, statistics would indicate that there is not an overall decline in English language skills in our schools across PNG, and OBE is unfairly blamed for contributing to the so-called drop in academic standards.

Diana McManus
Head of English, PMIS