Tag Archives: Bougainville Education

Mar 24 2015

Bougainville Mining News: Ex-combatants in Bougainville support controversial Bougainville Mining Act.

 

Grand Chief Momis addresses Excoms

“The government has done everything to thoroughly explain to the people the new Bill and how it will greatly regulate the extractive industry on Bougainville.We cannot continue to undermine the government for it is the very thing that we fought and died for, doing so only renders the purpose of our struggle moot,  .We are all behind the government and will not resort to creating instability within the region.

Spokesman for the ex-combatants, Cornelius Solomon

Ex-combatants in Bougainville have rallied behind the Autonomous Bougainville Government to support the passing of the controversial permanent Bougainville Mining Act.

Written and Supplied by Anthony Kaybing

The ex-combatants met with the ABG and its officials this afternoon (Tuesday) to express their support of the bill and assured ABG President Grand Chief Dr John Momis of their intent.

The permanent Bougainville Mining Bill is the brainchild of the Momis led ABG in its efforts to curb mineral resource problems that led to the bloody ten year civil conflict on the island.

The Bill if passed will give landowners a pronounced say on how mineral extraction is carried out on their lands and also controls the type of would be developers interested in mining on Bougainville.

The Bougainville Mining Department as well as the Bougainville Justice Department have been carrying out widespread awareness on the issue throughout Bougainville to explain the intricacies of the Bill to Bougainville communities.

Despite being hailed as a successful attempt by the government to protect Bougainville’s interests there have been certain elements who continue to argue that the bill is a sham and designed to sell Bougainville.

Foremost amongst its critics is former Bougainville Revolutionary Army strongman Sam Kauona who claims that the Bill lacks certain details that safe guard Bougainville from being exploited again.

But a different sentiment was echoed by Mr Kauona’s former comrades who claimed ownership of the government and in this light respected the ABG’s intent on passing the Bill.

Spokesman for the ex-combatants, Cornelius Solomon said the government has done everything to thoroughly explain to the people the new Bill and how it will greatly regulate the extractive industry on Bougainville.

Cornelius Solomon on behalf of excoms affirms ABG support

“We cannot continue to undermine the government for it is the very thing that we fought and died for, doing so only renders the purpose of our struggle moot,” Mr Solomon said.

Mr Solomon said that the ex-combatants were all behind the government and would not resort to creating instability within the region.

President Momis and his government also expressed their gratitude to the ex-combatants for taking the initiative to recognize the ABG’s efforts to act in the best interest of the people of Bougainville.

The Bill will be tabled sometime this week in the Bougainville House of Representatives as the members prepare to sit for the final sitting of the ABG second house since coming into office in 2010 before if goes to the polls in May.

 

Mar 23 2015

Bougainville Education News: NRL League Bilong Laif program commences in Bougainville

NRL

“Education is also a key priority for the people and government of Bougainville. The League Bilong Laif program will highlight the importance of education to the children of Bougainville so that they can strive to reach professions that will build a better future for Bougainville.”

NRL PNG In-Country General Manager, Mark Mom.

The League Bilong Laif program is expanding into a fourth region of Papua New Guinea, commencing its school-based rugby league activities in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville this month.

League Bilong Laif uses rugby league as a tool to support education outcomes. It is funded by the Australian Government and delivered by the National Rugby League (Australia) in partnership with the PNG National Department of Education and Bougainville’s Department of Education.

Photo : Children at Malasang Primary School at the launch of League Bilong Laif. Copyright: NRL Photos.

This month the program kicked off in Buka, where NRL development officers are working with around 950 students across two schools – Lonahan Primary School and Masalang Primary School

Each participating class receives five sessions of rugby league-related on-field and in-classroom activities that are non-contact and non-competitive and designed for girls and boys of all abilities.

Australian High Commissioner Ms Deborah Stokes said, “This program supports Australia’s strong youth focus in Bougainville. Empowering young boys and girls through sport is a powerful way to strengthen skills and community cohesion.”

The program uses a range of rugby league-themed educational and reading materials that the NRL has developed with Macmillan Education Australia that encourage healthy lifestyles and boost students’ physical, social, literacy and maths skills.

“Bougainville has been a nursery for many great rugby league players, including Kumuls representatives Bernard Wakatsi, Joe Katsi, Lauta Atoi (now the Honourable Member for North Bougainville), and Chris Siriosi (former Chief Secretary of the Autonomous Bougainville Government),” said NRL PNG In-Country General Manager, Mark Mom.

“Education is also a key priority for the people and government of Bougainville. The League Bilong Laif program will highlight the importance of education to the children of Bougainville so that they can strive to reach professions that will build a better future for Bougainville.”

Newly appointed Buka-based NRL PNG Development Officer, Stephanie Garea, said she is honoured to join the League Bilong Laif program, which employs female development officers in all its regions.

“I’m so happy to represent Buka as a woman in helping to establish this program and see female students running around with us during the sessions. I will make sure I do as much as I can as a female development officer to help my community and my region.”

The League Bilong Laif program will roll out into additional schools in Bougainville in term two.

How can you support Bougainville education ? Donate ebooks

More info and donations here BOOKGAINVILLE

Bookgainville Project on Bougainville PNG

Mar 3 2015

Bougainville Education News : Bougainville schools can win Laptop and Kindle in essay competition

Bougainville Education News :Essay competition is an opportunity for students to have their say about the Bougainville’s future

Please share with your schools and networks

2014-05-26 12.56.40

A new essay competition for secondary and high school students in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will provide youth with an opportunity to have their say about the future of the region.

Revised Closing date Friday 13 March 2015

The topic

“Is having a vote enough? What are citizens’ responsibilities in promoting and upholding democracy?”

aims to engage youth in discussion and what they see for their own future as Bougainvilleans.

Sponsored by the Australian High Commission in Papua New Guinea, the competition offers a laptop computer as a first prize.

The secondary and high school that the winning student attends will receive a Kindle (Can hold up to 1,400 books) from the Arawa based Bougainville E-reader Education Revolution Project that currently has 55 Kindles being distributed to 11 schools throughout Bougainville. SEE WEBSITE

Entries are open now and close on Friday 13 March 2015

The essay competition is open to all high school and secondary school students in Bougainville. Essays are to be 600 – 1000 words.

Entries can be mailed or submitted in person to the Australian High Commission Buka Office, Tsirin Motors Building, Haku Street, Buka or emailed to Public-Affairs-PortMoresby@dfat.gov.au

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Bookgainville Project on Bougainville PNG

Jan 16 2015

Bougainville Women’s News: Strengthening the participation of women in Bougainville’s development

BW

The Challenge: Prior to the conflict, Bougainville women played vital roles in community-level decision-making and were key agents of development. Overall, women held important positions in the family and community. Since the conflict this role has been weakened, resulting in women being marginalised from community decision-making processes. Further, during the conflict, women suffered violence as victims of torture, rape, and forced labour. The weakened capacity of women as agents of development within their communities and the low capacity of government departments working at the local level are widely viewed as significant challenges to development efforts

View the World Bank Website for more

Overview

Located at the eastern-most point of the New Guinea islands, Bougainville comprises two large and many smaller islands. It has a population of approximately 200,000 and over a dozen different languages. A province of Papua New Guinea since 1975, Bougainville is now an autonomous region within the country — the result of a nine-year revolt that left tens of thousands killed, a divided and traumatised population, degraded infrastructure, and a shattered economy brought on by the collapse of its main industry, mining.

Solution               

The Inclusive Development in Post-Conflict Bougainville project will benefit women and women’s organisations across the autonomous region as well as communities where projects are implemented and the individuals and agencies who are trained under the project.

The project consists of three components:

  1. Building Capacity for Inclusive Community Development; training women’s organisations and civil society organisations to support the involvement of women in community development. Training is provided for staff in the government, district and sub-district levels.
  2. Small Grants for Inclusive Community Development; women’s groups are invited to apply the concepts and skills they have learned from training directly to the design and implementation of community-based projects through the availability of small grants.
  3. Project Management and Knowledge Sharing.

 

Results

Through component 1, training has been delivered to 450 participants, exceeding the goal of 400 in the implementation plan.  Over two thirds of the participants have been women, exceeding the target of about 40%.  There were 51 participants from the Public Service which exceeds the goal of 46 as well as 190 participants from CSOs which exceeded the goal of 152.

Through component 2, small grants have been awarded to 41 women’s groups, including at least one project in each of Bougainville’s 13 districts. People benefitting from completed grant projects are estimated at over 48,000, nearly 25% of the population.

An Independent Monitoring Group concluded that public goods from the project are reaching communities with overall sound management of funds and that women’s roles are being strengthened through their direct management, ownership and leadership in the whole process.

 

Bank contribution

The World Bank (State and Peace-building Fund) has contributed US$2.5 million for this project

 

Moving forward

With the project currently set to close in March 2015, plans are underway to secure additional financing to extend the project to March 2018. Additional financing would support the provision of two more rounds of small grants to women’s groups, one per round for each of the 41 Community Governments.  Training would continue to build the capacity of women’s groups while also engaging District officials and Community Government leaders more actively in development planning monitoring and implementation support.

Promotion/Advertising : Donate here to support www.bookgainville.com educating young girls throughout Bougainville

Bookgainville Project on Bougainville PNG

 

Dec 11 2014

Bougainville Education and Health News: New report -A lost decade? Service Delivery and reforms in Papua New Guinea

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“The positive results revealed by the survey not only show that progress in service delivery is possible in Papua New Guinea, but also show how progress can be made. A large chunk of the report is devoted to understanding the impact (or lack of impact) of recent reforms, such as free health and education, and the reasons for the differences and trends that we observe”

Launched at the ANU Canberra Australia by Mr Charles Lepani Papua New Guinea High Commissioner to Australia

Picture Colin Cowell Bougainville News; Canberra

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE , A lost decade? Service delivery and reforms in Papua New Guinea,

How to make service delivery work in Bougainville and Papua New Guinea

A report based on two surveys ten years apart and two years of analysis has been  by a team of researchers from the National Research Institute (NRI) and The Australian National University (ANU).

In 2002, the Papua New Guinea National Research Institute (NRI), in collaboration with the World Bank, surveyed some 330 primary schools and health clinics across the country, from the national capital to the most remote districts. In 2012, NRI, this time in collaboration with the Development Policy Centre at ANU, went back to many of the same primary schools and health clinics in the same eight provinces, this time surveying a total of about 360 facilities.

The end-product is a data set of unprecedented detail and depth in relation to service delivery in PNG. Indeed, very few countries around the world can boast of a panel survey of facilities of this type which enables comparisons to be made over time.

The NRI-ANU research team has spent the last two years analysing the data sets,

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The report, A lost decade? Service delivery and reforms in Papua New Guinea, shows that PNG’s primary schools have expanded rapidly over the last decade, but that fewer services are now provided by its health clinics.

Since the difficulties of service delivery in PNG are already well-known, what is perhaps more interesting are the areas of progress shown in the report. There were 89 per cent more children enrolled in the average PNG primary school in 2012 compared to 2001. Whereas there used to be one girl at primary school for every two boys, now there is almost one girl for every boy. The number of teachers has grown by a third over the decade, and the share of female teachers has grown from a quarter to a half. The number of ghost teachers (teachers claiming pay but not actually working) has fallen dramatically. The average school has more and better classrooms, teacher houses and textbooks. More have drinking water and electricity.

Of course, PNG’s primary schools and – to a much greater extent – health clinics still face many challenges. A third of classrooms require rebuilding: the same share as in 2002. Class sizes have increased a lot, and there are broader concerns about the quality of education on offer. Though the number of children in school has certainly increased, absenteeism has risen.

Nevertheless, the positive results revealed by the survey not only show that progress in service delivery is possible in Papua New Guinea, but also show how progress can be made. A large chunk of the report is devoted to understanding the impact (or lack of impact) of recent reforms, such as free health and education, and the reasons for the differences and trends that we observe.

Getting finances to the service delivery front-line stands out as critical. A lot more funds are reaching schools today than health clinics. About 40 per cent of health clinics receive no external support at all (in cash or in kind), whereas nearly all schools receive the twice-yearly subsidy payments. And schools receive more than twice as much funding than they did ten years ago, even after inflation. What they have lost in school fees they have more than made up for through generous government support.

Local governance and supervision also matter. Schools have mature and increasingly powerful Boards of Management which provide local oversight. They receive community support through P&C Committees. And most schools are inspected.

Resolving workforce issues is also key. The Education Department has been able to hire new teachers, whereas many retired health workers continue in place since there is no-one to replace them. Significantly, about half the health workers we interviewed felt they were not being paid at the correct grade. That was true of teachers ten years ago, but now it is only 10 per cent. Again, progress is possible.

In summary, getting funding to the front line, providing community and administrative oversight, and sorting out human resource problems seems to be the secret for the success of PNG’s primary schools. It is a recipe that could be applied more to primary health care, perhaps starting at the bigger district-level facilities.

Regular monitoring of basic data across PNG is critical for understanding what is working, what isn’t working, and why. Without it, we will be in the dark about service delivery. We look forward to the discussion that we hope our report will generate. In our next phase of research, we’ll be going back into the field to undertake more detailed case studies to better understand the conditions required for service delivery success. And perhaps in another five years or so we’ll be able to further develop this unique data set by undertaking another nationwide facility survey.

The PNG Promoting Effective Public Expenditure Project

A lost decade? Service delivery and reforms in Papua New Guinea 2002-2012

Stephen Howes, Andrew Anton Mako, Anthony Swan, Grant Walton, Thomas Webster and Colin Wiltshire
October 2014
This report presents the results of a 2012 survey of 360 primary schools and health clinics across eight provinces in PNG, from the nation’s capital to its most far-flung and inaccessible regions. Many of the same facilities were surveyed at the start of the decade. By combining the two surveys, we can assess progress on health and education service delivery over time, and analyse the impact of important policy reforms.

Professor Stephen Howes is Director of the Development Policy Centre. Andrew Anton Mako was a Research Fellow at NRI for most of the duration of this project. Dr Grant Walton and Dr Anthony Swan are Research Fellows at the Development Policy Centre. Dr Thomas Webster is the Director of the National Research Institute. Colin Wiltshire is the Project Manager for the PEPE project at the Development Policy Centre.

 

Dec 8 2014

Bougainville Good News Story: What Rorovana has done is a good example of community engagement and equal participation.

 

Bougainville_Roads_00

The road that locals have maintained. Picture: The locals who took part in the maintenance initiative.

By Ishmael Palipal

THE Rorovana community in Torau has teamed up with its leaders to maintain their only access road from Arawa to the two villages.

According to their supervisor Raphael Moses, the road maintenance initiative started the previous week and is expected to be completed this week.

The work, organised by the council of elders (COE), was to involve the community and the youths to create a means of income for the unemployed.

This means that the funds allocated for the maintenance work by Central Bougainville MP Jimmy Miringtoro – about K200,000 – will be used to pay the locals who volunteered to do the work.

Mr Moses said at this time of the year, seas are rough and the locals, most of whom depend on the catch and sale of fish to earn an income, must resort to other means. He said the road maintenance initiative is one such avenue.

The council and leaders have decided that the money set aside for the road maintenance can be utilised by using the community to do the maintenance, which involves work such as bush and grass cutting, clearing, digging proper drainage system, patching and levelling portholes and muddy areas along the road.

“We see that most times when we hire contractors, they only work for the money and they do not do the roads properly; that’s why we decided to involve the community so that when they are working, they can at the same time take ownership of what they are doing and do it properly since it is the gate way to other services,” said Mr Moses.

“Also we engaged the unfortunate ones such as youths to earn an income.” Another local, Nathan Birio, said road infrastructure is an important service because through that other services will reach the people.

He said the government should look into this more closely and what the people of Rorovana have done is a good example of community engagement and equal participation. About 180 people volunteered to work on the road, including men, women and youths.

The volunteers were happy to give their service through the road maintenance initiative and urged the government to adopt such community-engagement initiatives throughout Bougainville so that the people can take ownership of government facilities and services in their areas. They said the communities will also stand to benefit from such partnerships

Advertising

You can support another community based project for education HERE

Bookgainville Project on Bougainville PNG

 

Dec 4 2014

Bougainville “good news” Story: 2014 has been a very progressive year for Central Bougainville

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The current government’s free education policy has seen increase in the number enrolments at schools around Central Bougainville. Numbers of schools are also on the increase and this means that more money must continue to put into education every year. Bougainville has missed out on education during the crisis and we have to bridge the gap created when children could not go to school during the troubled period.

What we need is a broader based economy instead of just relying on extractive industries that may run out one day. One of the biggest assets Bougainville has is its people who are creative and innovative. This is why there must be emphasis in putting a lot of money into education.

Picture above : A new classroom building funded by member for Central Bougainville, Jimmy Miringtoro at Raiovi Primary School Wakunai District, Our thanks to Chris Baria for assistance with this article

Good things ahead-On the Sunny Side

This year 2014 has been a very progressive year for Central Bougainville. The region started the year on a positive note with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O’Neill visiting all three regions of Bougainville including Central. During his visit he made a commitment to the people of Bougainville to fund high impact projects, several of which are in Central Bougainville.

Map 2

These are the water and sanitation restoration for Arawa Town, the Aropa Airport re-opening and the other major project is of course the sealing of Bougainville Coastal Trunk from Buka to Buin.

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This is a clear indication of commitment that the National Government with the support our four Bougainville MPs has a strong desire to see the Autonomous Region of Bougainville prosper in the coming years.

We have come a long way since the peace agreement was signed and there is a lot to be done as yet for Bougainville to achieve what was agreed to in the peace process. In Central Bougainville we have devoted a lot of time and money in improving education by providing more classrooms to accommodate ever increasing number enrolments in schools in the bid to bridge the gap left by the Bougainville crisis.

Education is one of the priority sectors that the government is putting money into along with Health, Infrastructure Development, Law and Order and Business Development. Health centers and aid-posts are also receiving funds from my electoral office. The police in Arawa have benefited from a vehicle allocation from the office of Member for Central as part of his community efforts to enhance the law and order sector. Funding has also been made available to the local Business Association as a form of assistance to grow small businesses in Central Bougainville.

Rural Communications Project and Integrated Government Information System (IGIS)

The government has already rolled out a rural communications project. You many have noticed new towers set up in areas that were not formerly serviced by mobile phone network. By the end of 2015 the government hopes that Bougainville will have more than 50% mobile network coverage that will include data, Internet and telephony. By 2016 Bougainville should have 100% mobile network coverage including remote and rural locations, which are not service by roads.

The main aim of the Rural Communications Project is to provide access to telecommunications and other ICT services including TV, internet, FM Radio and Data storage and transmission to rural and remote locations that lack these services.

The government has also established the “integrated government information system” or IGIS for short. This is the forerunner of e-government for Papua New Guinea. Under this ICT infrastructure all government departments and divisions will be interlinked through a computer network, which also has a data bank. This will prevent duplication and enable data and information sharing with ease.

Information can be stored at central location where those who need it and/or if they require it. The Rural Communication Project roll out will establish communication network that will become integrated into IGIS and link up all local level governments with the main government network and data center. This will mean that leaders will have to be more transparent in their work because the people will be able to monitor their performance online through IGIS.

Supporting sustainable development

Papua New Guinea is heavily reliant on logging, minerals, oil and gas for its revenue generation. These industries while they may bring economic boom to a country do have large problems associated with them and for one thing they are non-renewable, and finite and therefore unsustainable. Central Bougainville has had its taste of mining activity during the 70s and 80s.

What we need is a broader based economy instead of just relying on extractive industries that may run out one day. One of the biggest assets Bougainville has is its people who are creative and innovative. This is why there must be emphasis in putting a lot of money into education.

The current government’s free education policy has seen increase in the number enrolments at schools around Central Bougainville. Numbers of schools are also on the increase and this means that more money must continue to put into education every year. Bougainville has missed out on education during the crisis and we have to bridge the gap created when children could not go to school during the troubled period.

Kindles a revolutionary literacy tool in Bougainville schools

In another first for Central Bougainville and in fact Papua New Guinea,James Tanis (former Bougainville President) has established Book-Gain-Ville E reader Revolution in a number of schools in Central Bougainville including Nariana, St. Judes Pok Pok Island, Dareenai Kavearonau and Piruana .

It was launched as  an initiative to improve literacy throughout Bougainville.

Bookgainville.com

Each Kindle can hold up to 1,400 books and by the end of 2014 there will over 50 kindles in 11 Bougainville schools. To date there has been no government support but hopefully in 2015 with the support of Government and NGO’s more schools can get these E reader libraries

See Website for more details or make a donation  http://www.bookgainville.com/

Government Development Priorities

As part of its continuing commitment the National Government development policy covers five development sectors, which are in, line with its Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP). These are also applicable to Bougainville. These sectors are Health, Education, Infrastructure, Law and Order and Small Business. In line with this plan Bougainville MPs have funded a number of health facilities. In Central this includes Manetai and Wakunai Health Centres and a number of village level aid posts in the rural communities.

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In the health sector, the office of MP for in Central has also funded ambulances to all major health centres in Central Bougainville. More money has been spent on building classrooms and other school infrastructure to cater for the increase in the number of enrolments over the years.

With regard to infrastructure, considerable amount of money is being used on feeder road maintenance including, for the first time a new road into remote and densely populated area in Paruparu previously inaccessible by road. A considerable level of funds has also allocated to restoration of Aropa Airport, which is about to be opened soon. PNG Power also received funding to provide power to Arawa town, Kieta port and to the new Kieta Distict entre in Toniva. Up to K1million has been committed to the Central Bougainville Business Association to assist small business in the region.

Looking ahead

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Children are our future

Lot of work has been done to provide much needed infrastructure such as roads, schools, and of course the soon be reopened Aropa Airport. Services such as health and education continue to more draw more funds from the government through my electoral office and the treasury.

A lot more needs to be done to improve current services and to build more roads and schools. The government is ready to help out in anyway it can. However, there are certain areas where the community can contribute to the development process. For example, in order for feeder roads to last longer, drains need to kept clear of debris and grass has to be cut along the roadside. A little preventive maintenance can make a lot of difference.

Same goes for schools. Parents and community must devote sometime to do maintenance work, cleaning and grass-cutting in the school areas. The community must help to look after what the government has provided for them. The government cannot be expected to do everything. In order for us to move ahead it requires joint effort by all.

Nov 26 2014

Bougainville Government Update: New Public Service must now be responsive to the direction of Cabinet and the House

President Momis

“I am looking for to having these appointments made quickly and transparently. It is vital that the Administration gets down to work under the new Public Service structure and new leadership. Our government has a very full programme of infrastructure, economic development and social projects that need to be implemented down at the districts.” said President Momis.  “We have wasted too much time in the past and the Public Service must now be responsive to the direction of Cabinet and the House.”

President Momis as Chairman of the Bougainville Senior Appointments Committee

BOUGAINVILLE PUBLIC SERVICES SELECTION PROCESS BEGINS

President Momis has announced that the process for selecting the top level management for the ABG had commenced. Advertising closed just over two weeks ago.

“I am delighted to say that as a result of extensive advertising the ABG has received a large number of applications, over 160, from a wide range of candidates for the positions of Chief Secretary, 13 departmental heads and the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner. Most positions have over 10 applicants,” said the President.

President Momis went on to say “The Bougainville Senior Appointments Committee has approved a process that will see the shortlisted candidates for Chief Secretary interviewed by an independent panel of three people who will make their recommendations to the Committee. Preliminary interviews are taking place, and referee checks will be made. The Committee is planning to make an appointment before Christmas. The selection process is rigorous. There will be no outside interference in the process.”

“I am hoping and praying that the people we select for these positions imbued with the spirit of service to the people of Bougainville. They have to work together to change the culture of the Public Service. They need to earn the support of the people and change Bougainville to its former position of being the best performing and premier government in Papua New Guinea” said the President

Once the Chief Secretary is appointed the Senior Appointments Committee will meet in January and February next year to make the remaining appointments of departmental heads. This is a realistic timetable given the number of applicants and the background checks that have to be made in the next five weeks.

The Bougainville Senior Appointments Committee is made up of President Momis, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Andrew Miriki, Bishop Tim Arthur representing the churches, Mrs Hona Hollan appointed by the Bougainville Women’s Federation and appointed by the PNG Law Society Mr Hubert Kikira. Under Bougainville law the Committee will receive a report from the independent panel ranking the applicants. The Committee may then decide to reinterview the candidates but it does not have to. The Committee then selects the preferred candidate.

The position of Bougainville Electoral Commissioner will also be filled before Christmas. The Bougainville Constitution says that for constitutional offices the National Government must appoint two members to the Committee. The additional members are the Secretary of the Department of Personnel Management Mr John Kali and the PNG Electoral Commissioner Mr Andrew Trawen.

“I am looking for to having these appointments made quickly and transparently. It is vital that the Administration gets down to work under the new Public Service structure and new leadership. Our government has a very full programme of infrastructure, economic development and social projects that need to be implemented down at the districts.” said President Momis.  “We have wasted too much time in the past and the Public Service must now be responsive to the direction of Cabinet and the House.”

 

JOHN MOMIS, GCL, MHR,

PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN BOUGAINVILLE SENIOR APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE

Tuesday 25 November 2014

 

Nov 20 2014

Bougainville Education News :Essay competition is an opportunity for students to have their say about the Bougainville’s future

2014-05-26 12.56.40

A new essay competition for secondary and high school students in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will provide youth with an opportunity to have their say about the future of the region.

Revised Closing date Friday 13 March 2015

The topic

“Is having a vote enough? What are citizens’ responsibilities in promoting and upholding democracy?”

aims to engage youth in discussion and what they see for their own future as Bougainvilleans.

Sponsored by the Australian High Commission in Papua New Guinea, the competition offers a laptop computer as a first prize.

The secondary and high school that the winning student attends will receive a Kindle (Can hold up to 1,400 books) from the Arawa based Bougainville E-reader Education Revolution Project that currently has 55 Kindles being distributed to 11 schools throughout Bougainville. SEE WEBSITE

Entries are open now and close on Friday 13 March 2015

The essay competition is open to all high school and secondary school students in Bougainville. Essays are to be 600 – 1000 words.

Entries can be mailed or submitted in person to the Australian High Commission Buka Office, Tsirin Motors Building, Haku Street, Buka or emailed to Public-Affairs-PortMoresby@dfat.gov.au

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Bookgainville Project on Bougainville PNG

Nov 18 2014

Bougainville Education News: Education is a Bougainville Government priotity

2014-05-21 10.59.08

In Bougainville, the Autonomous Bougainville Government regards education as one of its priority sectors.

And in terms of the development of the performance and standards of education as revealed by the ABG Deputy Secretary for Policy Paul Kebori, it is very important that we continue to monitor and evaluate the performance of our teachers so that our children can benefit by being able to learn at the highest level possible.

BY JENNIFER NKUI : Picture above Books and Kindles being donated to Nariana Elementary School: Metonasi Region: Nagovisi, Via Panguna ,Central Bougainville www.bookgainville.com

When giving his welcome speech during the opening of the combined regional rating conference at Hutjena Secondary School yesterday, Mr. Kebori urged the standard officers to give credit to teachers where it is due saying our teachers are hardworking and they work in some of the most challenging environments in Papua New Guinea and especially in Bougainville.

He stressed that it is only good that when they go through the rating conference, the officers must look at this challenges and in doing so we can continue to improve the standards of education in Papua New Guinea.

Mr. Kebori believes that the rating conference will be a success and that it will amount to the development of education and the development of standards within the education sector.

Mary Remi who also addressed the conference participants that day asked that the results of the ratings be used appropriately.

The acting secretary for the ABG department of education explained that appropriately means that the results of the ratings will enable some new graduates to be registered as teachers and it will also enable some to move up the ranks to gain eligibility to the next level while there are some whose reports have been deemed unsuccessful.

Therefore when Ms. Remi said that the results of the ratings be used appropriately, it means giving promotions to teachers where it is due and whereby there are unsuccessful reports, that means it also requires assistance from everyone to further develop professional growth for our teachers.

She then stressed that the appraisal of teachers is one major element that contributes to quality academic performance as well and as a result, this rating conference is not only to assess but has other implications.

181114PNG EDUCATION ACT NO LONGER APPLIES TO BOUGAINVILLE

BY JENNIFER NKUI

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In the light of the enactment of the new Bougainville Education Act on April 29 this year, the Bougainville education system is now governed by the new Act and hence the Papua New Guinea Education Act no longer applies to Bougainville.

This was revealed by the ABG education minister John Tabinaman when opening the combined regional rating conference at Hutjena Secondary School yesterday morning.

When highlighting some changes to governance in the new Act, the minister pointed out that compulsory education as stipulated in section 3 of the new Bougainville Education Act says that compulsory education for Bougainville will be from elementary prep up to grade 8 and this will come into effect in 2017.

As explained by the minister, this is to give ample time to his department to carry out awareness to all stakeholders and plan accordingly to address planning and financial implications of that concept.

He went on to say that the Act also stipulates under section 17 that members of the Bougainville Education Board can only be Bougainvilleans which is a step towards ensuring that home grown ideas and concepts are encouraged in setting strategic directions in the education policies and policy guidelines that are developed.

Further to that, the Bougainville Education Board will have two ex-officios and will no longer be chaired by the secretary who is the chairperson of the current board.

Minister Tabinaman then stressed that gender balance is called for in the New Bougainville Education Act.

He explained that this is to ensure that both women’s and men’s voices are heard in the decision making process.

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