Education – Upskilling Primary School Teachers

Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, poor planning has resulted in rapid and uncontrolled expansion of primary schools which is exceeding the supply of qualified teachers. Consequently, many remote schools have been operating with lessons taught by untrained teachers and volunteers, some of which have not completed primary school themselves. Literacy competencies are low, and teaching equipment is minimal.

After scoping the educational needs and existing capacities of the district, workshop have been tailored to up-skill poorly qualified teachers at targeted schools. Staff capacity building will take place through modules covering:

• Intensive phonics and English
• Numeracy
• Science
• General knowledge

In addition, schools will be resourced with mobile libraries, stationary, dictionaries, phonic intensive tapes and CDs, MP3 players and speakers.

Key Areas of Expenditure:

• Data collection regarding the number of students enrolled, number of teachers employed, the teachers’ qualifications, and GPS location of schools
• Workshop development and implementation
• Resource provision
• Management