OBE review vital for its success

THE Education Department needs to review the outcome-based education (OBE) policy for it to be successfully implemented. 
Teaching Service Commission’s Momase regional adviser, Joseph Oyoumb, said OBE was introduced to change the previous system.
Speaking at the Independence Day celebrations at Male Primary School in the Astrolabe Bay, Madang, last week, Oyoumb said: “The OBE is a good learning concept that empowers a child.”
But, he said it needed to be overhauled to suit the needs of PNG.
He said people who did not understand the OBE concept were creating a lot of confusion amongst the public with their negative views.
“The OBE concept is well suited for our country but early indication are that the approach and the implementation process of the system needs to be reviewed by the department,” Oyoumb said. 
He said the Education Department was putting a lot of emphasis on the successful implementation of OBE which was creating the need for adequate in-services for teachers.  
“As implementers of the policy, teachers need to attend in-services regularly. A lot of teachers are quitting because of the work load that OBE places on them and not because they want to leave.  “Those that were trained prior to the introduction of the policy cannot successfully implement because they were not trained to do so.
“They do not want to jeopardise the future of our children and that is why they are leaving,” Oyoumb said. 
He further added that with the implementation of the OBE, there was as increase in the number of Papua New Guineans who were passing through the education system but could not continue.
He stressed that what the government needed to do was to find avenues that would cater for the large number of drop outs for further educational opportunities.