Student blames teachers for poor marks

By SALLY POKITON
UPNG journalism student
TEACHERS are partly to be blamed for the poor quality of written English by OBE pioneer students in national examinations.
Gerehu Secondary School head boy Brian Loriko Jr said this last Friday in response to comments by Jubilee Catholic Secondary School’s principal Bernadette Ove that the usage of mobile phones was the main cause of poor standard of written English.
Loriko said often  teachers did not attend classes, “which is a reflection of the students’ performances in exams”.
He claimed teachers often took phone calls in front of students and that was wrong as they were supposed to lead by example.
“What is their priority as teachers? Many   skip lessons instead of teaching us in the classrooms,” Loriko said.
He said the education policy must be changed so both teachers and students were not be allowed to use mobile phones while in school.
Loriko said that most times teachers do did provide enough notes because they used lecture type teaching in the classroom.
“We are still in secondary school, not at the university level,” Loriko said.
He said outside work by their teachers contributed to their poor attendance because of the high cost of living and poor salaries they receive.
He called on the government to increase teacher’s salaries so they could focus on teaching and not running their private business during teaching hours.
“Most times we fill in the teacher’s absenteeism form when they skip their lessons but when we take it up to the administration nothing is done about it,” Loriko said.