Sir Paulias: Standard of education dropped

FORMER Governor-General, Sir Paulias Matane has expressed great concern over the problems occurring at educational institutions in the country.
Speaking on Tuesday in relation to the situation at Kokopo Business College, in East New Britain, that saw the destruction of school buildings and the death of a student, he said it should not have happened.
“I feel very sad when I hear of such situations occurring at our learning institutions as they should be places where students are supposed to be well disciplined and eager to learn,” he said
Being an educationist and a teacher in the past, he said the standard of education in all schools had dropped significantly.
“A Grade 9 student today is not the same like that one 10 years ago because the standard in schools has dropped so much and this should be a concern.”
Sir Paulias said there were many undisciplined students in East New Britain, evidence of school cult activities, fighting and alcohol consumption.
He questioned what teachers and parents were doing about it.
“The time has come now for us to change and move away from that perception held by outsiders that PNG is a law and order problem country.”
He said if we were going to make sure that PNG’s standard of education improved, teachers must do their jobs properly.
Matane suggested that five major compulsory subjects should be introduced in Grade 3 at all primary schools and be taught until Grade 12 in order to help children and students in their thinking to become better people.
He said the subjects should be agriculture, technical vocational education, service tourism industry, commerce and industry and proper attitude towards life.