RAYMOND SIGIMET
THE 'outcome-based education' structural reform of 1993 saw the elevation of selected community schools to primary schools and promotion of high schools to secondary schools in those provinces selected to trial the education reform.
With much reassurance, the national department of education under its secretary, the late Dr Joseph Pagelio, outlined the benefits of the reform.
Children could start school at an earlier age, they would learn their local language and culture, they would undertake two years of high school education at community school level and more students would complete Grade 12 for selection into universities and colleges, teachers would upgrade their qualifications, retention statistics would improve, the list went on.
Outcome based education had failed miserably in countries like Australia, South Africa and the United States. But, in their wisdom, the Papua New Guinea government and its advisors went ahead with the reform anyway.
It looked good on paper and sounded workable to the ears. But 20 years later, history tells us it failed in PNG - just like it did in those other countries.
Last year, the national department of education announced that the 1993 education reform had fallen short of its objective and would be phased out with a new standards based education reform - more or less a return to the old way of schooling.
The problems with outcome based education arose for a variety of reasons: lack of funding and implementation were fundamental failures which were intensified by the lack of trained specialist teachers and many other flaws and let-downs.
The more recent introduction of the free education policy saw an influx of students causing overcrowded classrooms and unrealistic teacher to student ratios. Last year, a technical high school in West New Britain had more than 100 students in each class. The trend across PNG shows there are usually 60 to 70 students per class.
This has resulted in low standards, poor academic performance and a high rate of teachers leaving the profession because of stress and job dissatisfaction.
The 1993 reform was a completely botched job from start to finish despite the best efforts of Joe Pagelio.
It should be noted that during the 20 plus years of the reform, a generation of young Papua New Guineans were indoctrinated into it and some passed through with flying colours. But many more got lost along the way.
The question now is how did PNG go ahead with a reform knowing full well the system failed in more developed countries?
Somewhere between PNG’s own educationists and their external advisers, someone must have an answer.
