UN fund aids education study

 By SONIA KENU 

THE United Nation Children’s Fund is supporting a research to establish early learning development standards in curriculum for early childhood care education. 

UNICEF education officer Cathy Patuvii said the research is being conducted by the departments of education, health and community development. 

Findings of the research will be analysed and used to develop curriculum, teacher training programmes and materials for early childhood centres and elementary schools. 

UNICEF and the education department started a training workshop on Monday for elementary school teachers and trainers in nine provinces to prepare them for the research. 

Patuvii said the research targeted children between the ages of three and five in the 22 provinces. 

Brian Monie, the acting assistant secretary for policy planning research and communication in the education department, said the first week of the workshop was for teachers to learn how to approach children and parents when conducting interviews. 

“Next week the teachers will do a trial research in Rigo district, Central, by applying the skills they have learnt on real situations,” he said. 

“After the trial research, they will go out to the provinces to do the actual research for data collection.”

PNG is among seven Asia-Pacific countries to conduct the research. 

“The findings will be validated against the other seven countries and will be assessed regionally and globally,” Monie said.