This section on the development of the education system has two parts. Part one provides the history of education. Part two discusses the problems of education during the development process.
Historical background of education system
Papua New Guinea's national education system was developed on a “transplanted” western model of education. Tololo (1976) articulated that the education system was introduced by “persons who confidently gave the impression that they knew what should be done, even though it was not well understood, even by many of the comparatively well-educated persons whose decisions affected the future of the country” (p. 212).
The Christian churches, including the London Missionary Society (LMS), and the Lutheran, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches, organised a system of schools in Papua New Guinea before a state system was introduced. Between 1873 and 1940, the first formal school systems were established by the missions to teach local people to use English to read, write and communicate. Local teachers were
established a large school for both European and Indigenous children. They provided technical education and German language teaching to develop the knowledge and technical skills for immigrant workers and Indigenous people. McLaughlin & O'Donoghue (1996) asserted that some of the missionaries who taught the teachers were not qualified or trained as teachers themselves. The system of education was characterized by authoritarian teaching styles and students' learning was based on “memorization and rote learning” (p. 21). The Second World War saw the end of many of these German and mission initiatives.
The territory government developed a state system of education after the Second World War in 1945. These two systems of education operated autonomously. W. C. Groves, the first Director of Education, was given the task of bringing two systems together. From 1946, the colonial administration directed all procedures, conditions of employment and undertook the training of indigenous teachers in order to promote the policy of one education system. In-service programs were designed to upgrade teachers' knowledge and skills for both government and mission schools. It has been suggested that Groves' own professional interests acted against the administration's policy (Smith, 1985). He was against Western countries imposing their ideas on Indigenous people which could cause the disparity between urban the élite and rural poor in developing countries.
However, there still existed policies that effectively restricted Indigenous people to complete only elementary level education (Harrington, 1987). Indigenous people had no access to education beyond primary level. The United Nations in 1948 demanded that more access to education be provided. Both systems had to establish infant, primary, junior high schools and teacher training colleges. Smith (1985, p. 49) asserted that education made available for the Indigenous people by colonial authorities reflected the views of those who provided it rather than the views of those for whom it was provided. A central system was then needed to coordinate and monitor standards of education. This was a start towards defining a centralised system of education. In 1952, an Education Ordinance (Act) was developed. The Education Advisory Board ensured these recognised schools had “reasonable standards for teaching” before releasing the funding. Here “standards” was perceived to mean having met the above “formal criteria”. In the process, standards were identified by the number eligible to progress from one grade to another. The same board set criteria for mission and state run institutions training teachers as a means of controlling teacher certification and registration. At this level respectively, there an absence of formal set standards for curriculum and teacher performance.
The committee under W. Weeden as chair produced the Report of the Advisory Committee on Education in Papua New Guinea, (1969). It was a significant educational milestone in that it provided direction to the
Education Advisory Board on ways in which powers, functions and responsibilities stipulated in the 1952 Act could be exercised. The Weeden report provided a platform to work towards developing a single national education system. This report recognised that a better system was needed to establish, fund, control and provide supervision of schools. It recognised that standards of teaching and education in general were not the same throughout Papua New Guinea. Further the report identified that teacher salary levels and employment conditions varied between mission and government schools.
The 1952 Act was superseded with the development and enactment of the Education Act (1970) and the Teaching Service Act (1971). These Acts were developed as two separate legislations. Government and mission systems were “unified” to form the national system. Under the National Education System, a working and decision-making “partnership” arrangement, was established between the state and the missions. To date, this partnership arrangement as defined in law, establishes a very strong relationship between the state and the missions on how to conduct educational activities. According to these Acts, all teachers were to be trained, qualified and registered as members of a teaching service. A Teaching Service Commission was set up to determine and enforce working conditions for teachers. Education Boards were created to have representatives from the community, institutions, students, missions, unions and governments encouraging more participation in the decision-making process. The Acts formally established the Education Director's position, clearly defining the powers, function and responsibilities for certification of teachers, curriculum, inspections, and examinations.
In 1972, more amendments were made to the Education Act (1970) and the Teaching Service Act (1971) to accommodate changes in the education system. Between 1972 and 1983 further changes were made which has resulted in the Education Act (1983) and the Teaching Service Act (1983) were enacted. Later changes resulted in the Education (amendment) Act (1995) and the Teaching Service (amendment) Act (1988). These two Acts defined the laws providing clear guidelines to several bodies to perform their responsibilities. The bodies created by the Acts are: the Papua New Guinea Teachers' Association; the National Education Board (NEB); the Provincial Education Boards, the Primary School Board of Management; Secondary School Board of Governors; the Curriculum Boards of Studies and the Governing Councils. They were set up as policy, administration and management bodies. Their responsibilities are to develop and implement policies in establishing schools, teaching positions, curricula, monitoring standards, administration and management.
curriculum; and examinations. NEB also plays an active role in overseeing the work of the provincial education bodies responsible for the administration of teachers' conditions of employment, supervision of schools and implementation of curriculum and teacher professional development. Furthermore, the NEB has the responsibility for development of policies to maintain standards in the following key areas: 1) elementary education; 2) primary education; 3) teacher education for elementary, primary, technical and vocational institutions; 4) technical/vocational education; and 5) secondary education (AusAID, 2000; NDOE, 2000d). Within the priority areas, special education, gender, culture, language, non-formal education and management support systems are addressed. However, redirecting priorities and provision of sufficient resources and other management support from the department of education, national and provincial governments has not matched the high expectations of standards in the above priorities (World Bank, 1989 & 1995).
In view of this failure, new legislation known as the “Organic Law” was developed in 1995 defining the powers and decision-making processes that provinces and local governments should adopt in school administration including resource allocations, management and curriculum implementation (Constitutional Commission, 1996). This initiative provided more alternatives to deal with the magnitude of developmental problems inherited from the period between 1900 and 1991 when new education reform policies were developed such as those for elementary education. A number of these developmental concerns are explained below.
Education System Developmental Concerns
In Papua New Guinea, the overall pace of development has been slow, largely due to economic and political difficulties. Thus, the coherent approaches initiated in the past have not been achieved or sustained. For instance, in 1989, Papua New Guinea was classified by the World Bank as amongst the lower middle-income countries with an annual Gross National Product (GNP) per capita of about $US 1,000 (Education Sector Review, 1991). Also, the following reports stated that the current formal style of education is one of the most expensive systems in the developing world (Papua New Guinea/AusAID/ADB, 1995; Guy, Tawaiyole, Khambu & Avei, 1996). Papua New Guinea’s educational status is below average for countries with similar income levels. In the primary school system, approximately 73% enter school and only 35% graduate from primary school to enter secondary school. A number of complex reasons for this situation are discussed in this section. Perhaps the foremost reason is that over 80% of the 5.3 million people live a subsistence life in the rural areas (Department of Education, 2002b). It can be argued that it is for this same reason that schooling is not valued as greatly as it could be.
Currently, there are unresolved conceptual problems for the numerous stakeholders in defining quality and standards of public education (Attwood, 1986). Hawes (1987) noted that standards are often confused and attempts to address these problems have frequently been superficial (Hawes, 1987). Beeby (1966, p. 70) asserted that Papua New Guinea compared to the experience of other emerging countries’ education processes seemed to place greatest emphasis on quality issues, mainly influenced by societal expectations and perceptions. Beeby pointed out that Papua New Guinea must follow “certain stages of growth”. Although a system may be helped to speed up its progress, it cannot leapfrog a stage or a major portion of a stage, because its position on the scale of development is determined by two factors; the level of general education of teachers; and the amount of training they have received (p. 70). McKinnon (1976b) stated that the capacity of education systems for change is “determined by the characteristics and training of the current teaching force” (p. 191).
In discussing the educational experience of developing countries in 1977, Smyth cautioned Papua New Guinea against opting to select elements of modernization and combining them with the local cultural context on the grounds that both processes of socialization and cultural systems change over time and therefore development cannot be achieved meaningfully. While Smyth’s point is well taken, in 2004 people are now seeing that change is a reality and those in positions of authority are better placed to combine elements of traditional education alongside modern educational practice.
In 1981, a Ministerial Committee of Enquiry into standards chaired by Simon Kenehe investigated the public’s concern over the alleged problem of “falling standards of academic achievement” in schools. Details of the Kenehe report covered a wide range of concerns and issues associated with quality and standards of education, particularly, the apparent lack of performance and accountability, and weaknesses in school systems. The study revealed varied perceptions of standards, and large gaps in knowledge and skills in the various systems of education. The World Bank responded to the government’s concern on low standards in schools by placing strong emphasis on qualitative improvements to educational planning and production of curriculum material. But despite the government’s efforts, McNamara (1983) asserted that “political ambitions appear to be outstripping administrative capacity” (p. 20). Weaknesses existed in administration, planning and incompetent officers. Sometimes teachers’ good efforts to address central directives associated with curriculum content and balance, methods of teaching, assessments and evaluation and school procedures have been destroyed by irresponsible and incompetent administrators in the provinces (McNamara, 1983). Anderson (1984) pointed out that reducing levels of confusion and
provincial education offices. Furthermore, general lack of support from the government made it difficult for the provincial education offices to sustain any level of efficiency in the school system.
Another Ministerial Committee of enquiry was focussed on the “philosophy of education” and published as the Matane Report (1986). The philosophy of education embodied in this report recognizes that education has to provide every child with the opportunity to socialize, participate and be liberated from any domination and oppression and that there needs to be equality in the provision of education for all school age children. The Matane committee reported that teachers’ lack of skills and knowledge, irrelevant curriculum; poor teaching methods, lack of community support, poor subject standards and teacher training all contributed to the low educational standards. Rogers (1986) asserted that the government sets the education philosophy, based on the idealistic views of political leaders and policy makers. However, the implementation of the philosophy is burdened by cultural and linguistic complexity while at the same time the education system is undergoing transition and change. A number of these encounters are viewed and explained in this study because in standards-based educational systems, standards supposedly drive the system.
The following sections will explore how international education standards perspectives are translated in Papua New Guinea.