Poor resourcing putting at risk rollout of school curriculum

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
There are limited resources to rollout the standard-based curriculum, a Morobe education official says.
Senior school inspector for elementary and primary schools, Naikuli Keith Tangui, said there were no resource books provided to inspectors and teachers.
“We do not have the syllabus and teachers’ guide currently in stock for our teachers,” he said. “We were only given a soft copy.
“The original copies of the syllabus and teachers’ guide are still in Port Moresby.
“We are currently printing the soft copy of the textbooks and teachers’ guide and providing it to teachers.
“The whole seven subjects are being printed, however, imagine areas like Kabwum which do not have electricity.”
Tangui said funding was another important factor for this exercise because “we are running out of time”.
“The curriculum must be done and rolled out,” he said. “Funding is important and we have already decided how much each school should chip in.
“School inspectors in each district in Morobe will have to print their own training manuals, teachers’ guides, and textbook syllabus.”
Last month, Tangui said there would be training-of-trainers’ programmes so that the rollout could be effective.
“Master trainers will train the inspectors and lecturers, and they will then train cluster leaders,” he said.
“After the cluster leaders are trained, they will train all the teachers at the school level. That is how information about the syllabus will trickle right down to the school level.
“All our primary school teachers will be well vested with it.”