PNG’s literacy rate ‘lowest’

The National Main Stories
The table above showing PNG’s lteracy rate with the Government planning for it to reach 70 per cent by 2027.

By JOY OLALI and Max Oraka
PAPUA New Guinea’s literacy rate stands at 63.4 per cent – the lowest in the Pacific – with the Government planning that it reaches 70 per cent by 2027, an official says.
Career Trackers chief executive officer Ellenor Lutikoe told the National Content Conference in Port Moresby yesterday that according to the medium-term development goal, the literacy rate should reach 70 per cent by 2027.
She highlighted the three skills lacking in the workforce:

  • BASIC English skills;
  • BASIC business skills including digital literacy; and
  • RELEVANT and practical working knowledge related to the role they apply for.

“Personally, I strongly believe that literacy is the foundation for an individual,” she said.
In 2000, PNG had a literacy rate of 57.34 per cent, in 2010 the rate increased (by 4.26) to 61.6 per cent and today, it is  63.4 percent( increase of 1.8pc). So it needs to increase by 6.60 per cent to reach the 2027 target of 70 per cent.
Lutikoe said one of the way to address these challenges is through on-the-job training programmes offered by companies including Career Trackers.
Adventist Development Relieve Agency chief executive officer Darren Yorio agreed that one way of addressing such challenges faced by employees is through literacy programmes.
Yorio said many areas in PNG faced many social issues because illiteracy had continued to delay the progress of national development.
He said the literacy rate was low compared to other Pacific island countries, and the Government must work with other players to address the issue.
“If there is a serious area we need to address, it is the issue of illiteracy. It is important that we maintain that level of rigorous focus on partnership to effectively continue the progress of development.” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kilala Devette-Chee, a Senior Research Fellow and Program Leader of Education Research Programme at the National Research Institute said PNG could reduce its high illiteracy rate by implementing the strategies recommended in her research report Illiteracy: A growing concern in Papua New Guinea.
“Literacy level in different parts of PNG has continued to be a matter of national concern,” she said.
“Although the Government has taken a number of measures to improve literacy in the country, more and more students who are dropping out of school are either semi-literate or illiterate.”
The strategies include:

  • REVIEWING the provision of free education to allow more children to attend school; do awareness on the importance of education; and,
  • ENCOURAGE night classes for working people and re-establishing school libraries to promote culture of reading.

According to Dr. Devette-Chee’s study, the root causes of the poor literacy learning outcomes include weak teaching skills and knowledge, diverse languages, frequent teacher and student absenteeism and lack of appropriate reading books and teaching support materials.
The Outcome-Based Education (OBE) which promoted the use of vernacular languages in elementary schools with a transition period to English in Grade 3 failed a lot of students due to improper implementation of the program.