Massive book program will boost schools
21 February 2011
WORK HAS BEGUN to distribute 2.7 million textbooks worth K80 million to PNG primary and community schools
The European Union has funded the massive project which will benefit 3,400 schools. It comes on the back of AusAID’s distribution last year of 54,000 textbooks worth K20 million.
The country’s biggest textbook delivery exercise involves seven local distributors and will take two months to complete.
Handing over the keys to five containers of textbooks in the Enga Province senior education adviser Wesley Lakain said the books should have a great impact. Each school will receive 20, 40 or 60 cartons of textbooks depending on its size.
“The Southern Highlands and Enga provincial governments pour so much money into education but the indicators don’t reflect that. With these books, we hope to change that and there is no reason why we should not,” Mr Lakain said.
The traditional AusAID textbook delivery will be done for secondary schools throughout the country later in the year.
Meanwhile, research has found that about 10 percent of Grade 7 students take marijuana, a symposium on alcohol abuse in Port Moresby has been told.
Secretary for Education, Dr Joseph Pagelio, said the findings also reveal that the number of students taking illegal substances increased as they move up the grades.
The research, conducted by the Department of Education guidance and counselling branch, indicated that 20 percent of students in Grade 9 had taken marijuana while 12 percent admitted drinking alcohol.
Dr Pagelio said addiction to drugs and alcohol often resulted in criminal acts and irrational behaviour, which were further boosted by other drugs and illegal substances sold on the street.
He said the introduction of a new behaviour management policy would change the way schools manage and respond to student behaviour. “It is a whole school approach to promoting positive student behaviour,” Dr Pagelio said.
The strategies included effective discipline techniques and sanctions, fair suspension and expulsion processes, counselling, supporting a healthy learning environment, effective class and school management and teaching life skills.
Sources: PNG Post-Courier and The National
The news about books being delivered to the PNG primary and community schools is always fantastic to hear.
It is all very well to know that they are receiving the books, but my past in country experience with this form of aid is that the books stay in their cartons and are stored in places such as under houses or in the back of classrooms. Invariably never to be utilised.
It is not that the recipients do not want to use the books, quite the opposite, it is that there are usually no appropriate storage facilities and management processes in place to coordinate their (ongoing)utilisation.
I hope that the EU and AusAID have tackled this issue, as those books have been making fantastic termite fodder.
Posted by: Maria Buka Meri | 23 February 2011 at 10:27 AM