OBE change not immediate

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill is worried the new curriculum replacing the outcomes-based education (OBE) will not be ready when schools resume in February.
O’Neill said the government had contacted AusAID to help with a temporary curriculum for the country to replace the OBE system that was abolished late last year.
“I fear the curriculum might not be ready when the schools resume in February,” he said.
He said the OBE was supposed to have been abolished in 2011, as requested by the government and the parents. But there was strong opposition from the department, which did not want to have it replaced, causing the delay.
O’Neill said to replace the curriculum would need more time to plan and review the kind of curriculum to be used in schools.
He said it would need time for in-service training for teachers but he hoped a temporary curriculum would be made available in time for the new academic year so that the vernacular was not used in the early stages of learning.
He said former secretary Dr Musawe Sinebare was brought into the system to have the policy implemented in line with the government’s free education policy but he had failed to provide the leadership, resulting in his suspension until an investigation was completed against him.
O’Neill was responding to questions without notice from the Komo-Margarima MP Francis Potape who wanted to know when the government could introduce the objective-based education curriculum as the time could be insufficient to implement.
He was concerned that teachers would be forced to teach a curriculum they were not acquainted with.
He asked the government to recall Sinebare to take the leadership as he was suspended on ill advice.
He said the onus was on Education Minister Paru Aihi to deal with the issue as cabinet would deliberate on the outcome of the submission.