Focusing on Reading in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is making great strides in improving how students are being taught to read. The 2011 PNG Read program, funded by the GPE grant and implemented by the Papua New Guinea Department of Education with the support of the World Bank, is an innovative program founded on the principle that reading is the fundamental skill all children must acquire to promote learning.
December 23, 2014 by Jeff Ramin, Global Partnership for Education
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6 minutes read
Two girls sitting at a desk at a school in Papua New Guinea (c) GPE/Jeff Ramin

Papua New Guinea is making great strides in improving how students are being taught to read. This is good success considering that in 2011 literacy rates among primary and secondary students in five of Papua New Guinea’s 22 provinces were below 20% (ASPBAE Australia).

The Pacific Island nation of 7.3 million people joined the GPE in 2010, with an ambitious Universal Basic Education Plan designed to ensure that “all children of school age must enroll in school, complete nine years of basic education and should have learnt skills, knowledge, and values covered in the basic education curriculum”. The plan aims to improve access and the quality of education as well as enhance management of basic education, retention, and equity. The Global Partnership for Education supported Papua New Guinea with a $19.2 million grant to implement this plan.

Reading is a fundamental skill to promote learning

The 2011 PNG Read program, funded by the GPE grant and implemented by the Papua New Guinea Department of Education with the support of the World Bank, is an innovative program founded on the principle that reading is the fundamental skill all children must acquire to promote learning.  The program promotes better teaching and learning of reading skills in elementary and primary education.  In Papa New Guinea, elementary level means preschool and the first two years of primary school, and elementary level includes grades 3 to 8. 

The program consists of three basic interventions:

  • Classroom libraries and related support for grades 3 to 8;
  • Learning kits and materials for elementary grades, also to teach reading;
  • Introducing a reading assessment tool to enable teachers to measure student progress

Many challenges to address….

As a result classroom libraries of 60 books are being established all grade 3 to 8 classes across the country.  Considering that PNG is as large as the United Kingdom with much of it not accessible by  road, delivering books to every school in the country represents a major logistical challenge that is still underway.  Selecting and procuring more than one million books was another challenge, as well as preparing teacher’s manuals and training DVDs to promote the use of these books via activities such as silent reading, paired reading, story time, and improved methods to teach reading.

Preparing, selecting and distributing the learning materials for younger children, much of it in vernacular languages as more than 800 languages are spoken in PNG, was yet another challenge we are addressing.

And finally, adapting and testing the reading assessment tools known as Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in four of Papa New Guinea’s 22 provinces is underway and is meant to give teachers and education departments officials practical tools to measure progress of the reading-related initiatives, including the ability to identify and address problems quickly.

…and successes to report

During a recent visit to Papua New Guinea I was able to see the progress of the PNG Read program. Reading scores in Madang province for both boys and girls have improved, interventions in the Western Highlands province are on track, and books for the classroom libraries are being distributed. In addition, teachers are being trained to use the materials to promote reading and improve reading scores.

In the capital Port Moresby I visited two local schools and observed that teacher training to promote reading has been quite effective. Teachers are integrating the classroom libraries and reading sessions into their classroom schedules. Techniques such as having a reading buddy are being used to pair stronger readers with less-proficient readers to help those struggling to become more confident and willing to participate in the reading activities.

The PNG Read team is also working on the development of a new “Standards Based Curriculum”, which highlights the importance of data collection to inform curriculum planning. This will strengthen evidence-based decision making going forward and the establishment of a strong and sustainable system.

Jeff Ramin is the GPE Country Lead for Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, Haiti, Maldives, Mongolia, Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Yemen.

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very admirable step to boost quality of education. Thank you for posting this kind of informative blogs.

Considering that PNG is as large as the United Kingdom with much of it not accessible by road, delivering books to every school in the country represents a major logistical challenge that is still underway. Selecting and procuring more than one million books was another challenge, as well as preparing teacher’s manuals and training DVDs to promote the use of these books via activities such as silent reading, paired reading, story time, and improved methods to teach reading.

<a href="http://matric-results.blogspot.com/2014/12/bise-lahore-board-5th-class-… Lahore Board 5th Class Result 2015 PEC</a>

I would like to offer you the opportunity to participate in Next Generation Global Education’s cultural immersion world tour, Skyping with students, teachers and community members around the world. This tour is designed as an intercultural language immersion opportunity where the children in other cultures will use technology to meet with and discuss specific landmarks, geography, climate, foods, and personal aspirations with student learners. Our tour can be followed via this link:http://goo.gl/0yDx3K
Here you will find our itinerary as well as links for each country. Followers can interact in real-time through scheduled Google Plus Hangouts.

Please note also that many events will focus on building capacity for (non-fictional) real world literacy, interactive higher order thinking skills, while posing global community challenges. Our world tour is our flagship event, not only for children, but also for educators interested in building a personalized global community. We will be visiting the following countries: the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Nepal, culminating with The African Summit (July 21 -23, 2015) at the State House, University of London, United Kingdom (http://africansummit.org).

Please feel free to visit our website at www.ngge.org, where you will find a detailed description of our Student Matrix and Universal Library of Learning. We invite your teachers to join NGGE in order to contribute to our Universal Knowledge base.

There's no question that children need to be able to READ, not just memorize oral instruction. One textbook is a start, and several better. But in what languages? Until a child is fluent in her/his own language as a reader and hopefully a writer, textbooks in someone else's languages present hurdles to comprehension that are daunting to all, and that can make most children feel incompetent as well. We need the tools to convert textbooks into local languages, to create them in local languages where possible, and to make sure adults can use them with the children. If we simply send textbooks into classrooms that children can't read and teachers don't know how to use, that is not good either.

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