Quality of learning must be ensured

SCHOOLS must provide conducive learning environments for quality learning to take place.
Quality education is achievable if schools create an environment where students are provided with everything they need.
In order for quality learning to take place, there must be quality teaching also taking place and it must be in a conducive and quality learning atmosphere or environment.
Students need to be in classrooms that should have the basic materials and equipment for them learn the content being delivered by their teachers.
That is a basic tenet of any learning situation.
It also goes without saying that the other basic amenities (proper, functional toilets/ablutions, the availability of drinking water, security, recreational and eating areas, etc) and facilities such as a library with relevant resource and/or reference material, a computer room or lab if possible or feasible/practical should be of a reasonable standard at the very least.
Schools should also ensure that they implement scheduling that maximises the students learning at the optimum times of the school day while other activities are slotted it at times where they will not be as taxing on a child’s ability to learn the basic content of the syllabus.
The tried and tested practice of putting the most mentally challenging subjects or the core subjects – mathematics, language and science – in the morning tends to be more effective while scheduling sports and other electives for the for afternoons gives the students the right weighting for their school day.
For the majority of schools, particularly those run and funded by the State, this is not the case.
In fact, there are schools (primary and secondary) in every province where overcrowding is the norm and has come to be accepted by teachers, the students themselves and the respective provincial education departments.
The situation has not changed much over the years.
Papua New Guinea is a developing nation that still struggles to address the various developmental issues it faces.
Education is one of them. While the Government has made it a point to make some kind of universal education a reality, it must also be mindful of the attendant issues with providing free education.
The most obvious challenge is that the number of students is likely to increase significantly, if it has not already.
While classroom sizes in terms of the number students has always been a bug bear for schools, it may be time to look at actually making more classrooms to cater for the load.
With that infrastructural change will also come the need for there to be more teachers. One cannot have one without the other.
They go hand in hand.
But it is not a question of quantity to handle quantity.
The quality of the teachers being rolled out of the nation’s colleges must be maintained and if possible improved.
Quality learning is the way forward for the Government to achieve its vision of making education compulsory by 2050.
Schools must be upgraded to be of quality standards.
There must be more classrooms, more teaching materials and more teachers.
Schools must have fully qualified teachers so learning is more effective.
Aside from having better facilities and teachers, the Education department must not neglect the need to do periodic checks and inspections of schools to ensure that what is being taught, who is teaching it and how it is being taught meet the minimum standards.
Nobody said education was easy but we owe it to our coming generations to strive for the best.