Skills boost for teachers

MORE than 3,600 elementary school teachers across 14 provinces have undergone up-skilling in rural Papua New Guinea over the last three years, a report says.
The training for 3,680 teachers was an initiative of the Kokoda Track Foundation’s (KTF) “Teacher for tomorrow (T4T)” project.
The project is in partnership with Education Department and PNG Education Institute.
Eleven elementary school teacher trainers from Morobe took a week-long learning exchange programme in Sydney in July to develop their skills as educators.
The report from KTF said the inaugural exchange was an integral part of “Teach for tomorrow II”, a project meant to up-skill and provide support with mentoring to elementary teachers in rural schools in the country.
“Teach for tomorrow II” aims to deliver accessible and affordable in-service training for the nation’s elementary teachers and also involves train-the-trainer model.
For Morobe participants, the exchange visit to Sydney provided an opportunity for the trainers to take their training programmes to the next level with a comprehensive overview of the education sector in Australia.
The trainers were taken through demonstrations from childhood to high school, attended workshops on teaching topics from policy to teaching methodology, creative literacy and participate in sessions focused on personal growth and development.
Learning from the visit will be incorporated into broader “Teach for tomorrow II” framework for implementation across PNG.
Morobe education adviser Keith Jiram, who accompanied the participants, said elementary trainers in the province were sure to benefit teachers and students for a lifetime.
Jiram thanked KTF for the initiative and for choosing Morobe as one of the provinces to take part in the exchange training programme.
KTF chief executive officer Dr Genevieve Nelson said the exchange programme was vital to advance the quality of the teaching and practice of the trainers by focusing on professional knowledge, practice and professional engagement.
“Teacher up-skilling in-service is a critical requirement for the delivery of relevant evidence-based teaching and learning,” he said.
“But it is most often the most remote locations that missed out.”
Nelson said KTF was looking forward to sharing the learnings with elementary teacher trainers right across PNG.