Teacher shortage means no school for some PNG kids

Transcript

A shortage of 10,000 teachers in Papua New Guinea is being felt most acutely by students in rural areas.

The chairman of the Teaching Service Commission, Baran Sori, says the government's policy of providing a basic quality education for all may never be achieved if those positions aren't filled.

He told Bridget Tunnicliffe why there is such a big shortage.

BARAN SORI: We don't have enough teachers colleges to train enough teachers and most of the vacancies exist in rural and remote locations.

BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: Do the teachers who teach in those remote areas get any extra benefits?

BS: Yes they do get extra benefits and we are looking at that at the moment through the union and the State - the Teaching Service Commission, negotiating for improved teachers terms and conditions. Teachers are not attracted to go to rural or remote areas, we call them disadvantaged schools. If we cannot get teachers to those areas definitely we frustrate the government's objective of having providing education for all.

BT: Is the government prepared to spend the money though to first of all set up more teacher training colleges, and also to pay these teachers in the rural areas more money, are they prepared to do that?

BS: Well I can't quite comment on that but this is something that, the service has to be provided. When we have more children that need to go to education, obviously we need more teachers and we need more infrastructure and curriculum materials to put it simply.

BT: So when you've got a shortage of 10,000 teachers what does that mean for students, are they just not able to go to school because there is no teacher or are the class sizes extremely high?

BS: It depends in urban centres class sizes are high. For instance in one urban school in the city, teacher ratio is one to 50/55. In remote areas in some places the ratio is very small and also the enrollment of students is small. Sizes do matter but the issue of concern is getting teachers to rural and remote areas to teach.

BT: Does that mean that some schools are not even operating because they don't have the teachers?

BS: There is some not operating because there are no teachers. In some cases parents have to move into urban centres in order to have their children enrolled in schools.