Persistence pays off for teacher

By JOYCE INGIPA
THERE is no such thing as luck, chance or secret route to achieving what we want in life.
Hard work is the recipe for success. If we want to achieve something in both secular and religious worlds we must work hard for it.
Kenny Pawa Ambiasi, a mathematics teacher at Port Moresby National High School wrote his first book titled Understanding Success: A Teacher’s Perspective and published it in April this year. The book was published with the help of Simbu Writers Association and printed by Amazon Books in United States of America.
The 34-year-old father of three from Pundia Village of Imbonggu, Southern Highlands wrote the book to help school administrators and education authorities solve teacher discipline problems which are affecting the performance of schools and the education system in PNG. He had decided to make the book motivational so that teachers can have visions, set goals and work hard to achieve desired results.
Ambiasi completed his primary schooling at the North Mendi Primary School in 2001 and moved on to Mogol Secondary School where he completed grade 12 in 2005 but was devastated when he did not receive any offer after that.
“In 2006 I realised that I had to get a tertiary qualification so I went to Port Moresby and upgraded my marks through distance learning at the Gerehu study centre to make it right for myself.”
After upgrading his marks for a year Ambiasi applied to do the Bachelor of Education course at the University of Goroka and was accepted to commence studies in 2007. He completed his studies in 2010 and has been teaching in a number of schools ever since.
Ambiasi strongly believes that in order to achieve quality education, there has to be quality teachers in place.
“If we don’t have quality teachers we will not have quality education and so we will have lots of anti-social problems in our society.”
Writing a book was no easy task for Ambiasi because English was not his specialised area nor his first language.
“Writing this book was not easy. As a mathematics teacher and someone who knew little of the mechanics of English language and process of publishing a book I felt like climbing a steep mountain. It took me lots of time to construct a sentence and many times I stayed all night till day break.
“And after I completed the manuscript I sought help from many people which included journalists and English experts to edit my work. However, all of them gave me negative response after seeing and going through my work. Their only reason was, my English was poor.”
Ambiasi turned a deaf ear to all the negative criticism and never gave up on his dream to publish his book; he decided to push on and work harder.
In his persistent hunt of English experts Ambiasi caught up with Patrick Niato Tom, a journalist working with Post Courier. Patrick helped Ambiasi in his primary stage of the book.
Sir Paulias Matane and Port Moresby National High School principal David Diowai encouraged Ambiasi to never give up.
Ambiasi’s mind was fixed with what Sir Paulias told him, “If you want to write a book, leave the English language mechanics to the editor but put your idea on paper.”
David Diowai, a veteran in the teaching profession boosted Ambiasi’s morale by agreeing to write the foreword of the book as he always stressed to young people to read and write a lot.
“When I worked hard with a positive mind I saw that my English was improving and I was amazed. Eventually, Francis Nii, the chief editor and writer in Simbu Writers Association accepted my manuscript and published it.
“What I can say now is that, success comes only through hard work, nothing else.”