Standard-based education needs fine-tuning to make it a winner

THE standard-based curriculum should be fine-tuned to be a true learning platform for every child, says East New Britain deputy governor Cosmas Bauk.
He was speaking during the launch of the rollout of the standard-based curriculum in Kokopo, East New Britain, on Friday.
“Standard-based education should be a reality educational platform that can identify children’s strengths, potential, talents, abilities and interests and helps foster and nurture their growth,” Bauk said.
Bauk, also the provincial education chairman, said outcome-based education had failed 95 per cent of children since it was introduced.
He said East New Britain, through the standard-based curriculum, should quickly adopt a “no drop-out” provincial education policy.
Bauk said the country had suffered through changing curriculums from standard-based to outcome-based, and then reverted back to standard-based.
“Under OBE, it was 15 years of trial-and-error,” he said. “That has a hefty human social cost of our own children systemically illiterate, landing PNG with 65 per cent illiteracy rate. SBC is and must be the real deal. I propose an adult literacy curriculum to assist our illiterate youths created by OBE.”