Silly preparation for Gr 10 exams
EDUCATION
Continuation of the life story of Jimi MP Wake Goi who served as a nurse before getting into the limelight of politics
By PAUL MINGA
DAYS prior to the Grade 10 examinations in October 1985, Wake was invited by a fellow Jimi local and teacher over to his house in town.
The teacher who was teaching at Mt Hagen High School, invited Wake over to his house so they could do some rehearsal and catch-up work in preparation for the final national exams.
Interestingly, he was appointed to be an invigilator for Kitip High School. When Wake got word that the teacher wanted him to travel to Mt Hagen, he was glad and excited. He thought that his wantok would offer him advice and mentoring. But when he arrived, he found that something very different was happening there.
First taste of beer
He was shocked to find that a beer drinking party was underway. As soon as Wake arrived, he was told to join the party. Wake refused again and again but eventually gave in.
Wake recalls that the beer party started on a Friday morning and continued to Sunday.
He woke up the next day, not fully sober. That Monday morning in 1985 was supposed to be a golden day for every Grade 10 student right across PNG as they got ready to sit for their English exam.
Wake and his peers at Kitip Lutheran High School sat for the exam that day and continued with the rest of the papers over the next few days. Thursday was the final day of exams, the day that that Wake and his peers had all been looking forward to for over a long time. It was the day when their high school race came to an end.
Regrets
In his school leaver’s form (SLF), Wake put his first choice as Goroka Teachers College, which is now known as the University of Goroka. His next choice was an agriculture college followed by a technical college.
About a month after their Grade 10 exams, Wake and his mates prepared for their school graduation day. On that special day, they were dressed in their best attire and walked up to the graduation podium to receive the papers that they had toiled for over four years.
Wake eagerly opened the envelope and found his grades to be such: English – Pass, Maths – Credit, Science – Pass and Social Science – Pass. Those were the results.
As a top student in Maths, he scored a credit, which is a really good grade but as for the other three subjects, the marks were not as good and convincing. Upon sighting his marks, Wake regretted deeply, remembering all the silly activities he was involved in as a senior student, things that distracted him from his studies.
He felt deeply troubled and scolded himself for wasting his time in his senior years doing all sorts of meaningless stuff, which contributed to him getting poor marks in the other three subjects.
Upgrading marks
The marks on his certificate were poor but Wake realised that it was too late to rewind the clock, to get back the times he had wasted in his senior years. So, he accepted everything. The three pass marks in English, Science and Social Science did not impress selectors for him to be considered for further studies and Wake wasn’t offered any scholarship for any of the three choices on the SLF in the following year.
Wake felt bad, knowing that he would be bearing the nametag of being a Grade 10 school leaver. He was very worried and upset as he thought of what would become of him as a ‘failure’, a term that is often used unjustifiably to label students who did not make it to the next level of studies.
But he knew there was no one else to be blamed; it was all his own doing. After his schoolmates received their offer for further studies and had gone to different tertiary institutions, Wake was left behind with a crushed heart, feeling dejected and miserable.
He was also very harsh on himself. He considered himself a failure as the 1986 new academic year was about to start in a week’s time. Wake knew that if he stayed back in his remote Gope village, it would be much tougher and impossible to seek a job or take up external study opportunities to upgrade his marks.
He then decided to leave his village and go live near a town so he could either find a job or upgrade his marks by external studies or correspondence school. Since his village was situated more than 120 km away and far from Mt Hagen town and the two smaller centres of Minj and Banz, he made plans to leave his village in Jimi and travel up to Waghi in pursuit of better opportunities.
So, Wake left his beloved Gope village. He packed his few decent clothes into a bag with his Grade 10 certificate and headed for Waghi.
Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door will be opened and seek and you will find. Those are wonderful words and at that time they influenced Wake. He did exactly that in going to Waghi. He was seeking for opportunities.
It was around March 1986 when he left his village and travelled to Waghi. He went to live with a relative in a village in Waghi. It was the same village that he and his father had stayed in before heading to Kitip when he was to start Grade 7.
There was fortunate to have met a boy called Kombuk, who was about the same age. Kombuk became a good partner for Wake as they went about and did all sorts of things together. After some time, the two proposed to build a separate house from their guardians so that they could have more privacy. They wanted to live apart from others and work on their own goals and tasks.
After the completion of their house, the two boys divided the indoor space into two. Wake decided to use his room to study for his external studies, to upgrade his marks with the College of Distance Education (Code).
Wake was happy that he would be able to work in private. He then eagerly travelled up to the Mt Hagen Code office and enquired for study materials so he could upgrade his poor marks.
By the time he finished his external studies through, he was advised to fill a non-school leaver’s form, which he remembers filling in July 1986. He recalls putting his first choice as Kudjip Nursing College, followed by Madang Technical College and the third choice Madang Teachers College.
While doing Code studies, Wake did other jobs as well in helping out the host family with picking coffee, digging drains, collecting firewood and cutting bush to extend gardens.
Close call
Wake recalls an incident which almost cost him his life. This happened in the waters of the mighty Waghi River. It was on a hot day on a weekend Wake and other boys went for a swim in the river. While playing and having fun the boys sighted some girls coming down from their home to have a swim on the other side of the river. Upon sighting the girls, the boys whistled to them and the girls responded positively, inviting them to swim across to them.
The boys jumped into the river and started swimming across and Wake thought he would be able to swim to the other side without difficulty, just like the others. But he made a terrible mistake. He forgot that he was a boy from Munmul jungle and was not used to swimming across a big river.
Somewhere in the middle his strength and energy diminished and he realised that he was still a long way from the opposite bank. His exhaustion weighed on him and then he sank into the water. He came up and went down a second time. He did that several times, and anyone observing that would have known that the boy was drowning.
The other boys who were smart swimmers knew what was happening and quickly came to his aid and rescued him. He was dragged out of the water and escorted up the bank. Wake was shaken. The realisation that he could have drowned while living far from his own village really shook him up.
After his stay in Waghi for about a year to upgrade his marks, it was time to return to beloved Gope, in Jimi – November 1986.
That was after he had completed his English and Social Science Code exams.
His wish was to get home and spend that Christmas holiday period with his loved ones. Back in his mind though, he was also anxious as well about the results of the exams that he had just completed. Would he be considered by the Department of Education for further studies?
- To Kudjip Narazene Nursing School next. Paul Minga is a freelance writer.