Prioritise technical education

OVER 200,000 students across the country will be sitting for their national examinations this month.
This week, 73,0000 grade 10 students from 350 secondary and high schools are sitting for their lower secondary school certificate.
Next week, 30,000 students from 188 secondary and national high schools will sit the grade 12 examination.
The Grade 8 examination is from Nov 2-5 with 100,000 students from 3,400 schools.
For the 233,000 students, their future literally hinges on these exams; passing them with above average grades would mean proceeding to higher grades for some or placements at tertiary institutions for others.
Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra last week called for fair examinations for all students adding that the grade 10 and 12 marks obtained from the final examinations would be added to the students’ internal marks using the established moderation procedures.
For grade 8 students, the marks from their examinations will enable them to progress into grade 9.
Success will depend largely on the students’ academic ability but the average one who has worked hard in the year and prepared well can give him or herself a pleasant surprise.
However, given the workings of the formal education system and the formal sector’s ability to absorb youth in gainful employment, the bulk of these young people would be left out to fend for themselves.
Only a few thousand would proceed to the next level as dictated by the PNG education system’s own type of natural selection where the most academically fit survive and proceed to another stage.
The rest of these school leavers are left to fend for themselves either in the job market or in private education institutions – if they can afford it.
As far as absorbing the thousands of graduates from secondary level, the reality on the ground is grim.
The problem is clear but the solutions are not so easy to come by.
It will be interesting to see what this government can come up within the next two years to address this.
Realistically, with a build of the masses in this demographic there are bound to be issues that society will face.
Maybe the solution, or one of them, is to give these students a chance to find employment and become in a way self-reliant and able to function in the modern economy.
Students coming out of our Grade 12 system should be given the option of going into technical education.
Technical education should not just be a complementary or supplementary part of the education system, it should be a large part of what schools do now. It shouldn’t be an elective but a core range of subjects.
They would need to generate a living with their minds and hands.
Our Prime Minister James Marape wants to see more citizens engaging in small and medium enterprises.
This is where life skills such as personal viability training, financial literacy and small business management come into play.
The thousands of graduates who leave at the end of every year would have a door of opportunity open for them if they had been trained to think, generate income, save and spend prudently to better themselves and those around them.
We wish all our students sitting their national examinations well.