By Colleen Barilae – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The Education department’s Read PNG Program has covered over 21,000 schools in the country however few rural areas are being jointly funded by their districts.
Huon Gulf district in Morobe last week welcomed a non-governmental organisation to bring in library services for its students.
District education Manager, Moses Wanga, says literacy projects in the district have received little or no funding attention at all from the education department in recent years.
The Education department’s Read PNG program, introduced in 2011 has not seen much development in schools in Morobe.
District Education Manager Moses Wanga, during the launching of a new library at Buakap Primary School in Huon Gulf district’s Salamaua LLG, said the district decided to help its schools improve literacy after the education department did not deliver on its read PNG program.
“As a district education manager, we have a problem of the implementation, we do not have enough capacity to roll out this policy to all the schools especially in Huon Gulf district, beacause of that reason, we hope to look around to see other partners or other service providers who can be able to deliver this service effectively”, Wanga said.
Morobe’s Provincial Education Advisor, Keith Jiram, has also confirmed the education department suffers from a lack funds to fully implement its read policy and has resorted to seeking support from district levels.
Rural Volunteer Library Services has assisted few districts in Morobe, and has set up libraries complete with reading books for primary and elementary school students.
The Read PNG program aims to improve literacy and enhance reading and comprehension skills among the young population in primary to elementary schools.
But in few rural schools where access to library services is poor, districts are now taking the next step in delivering this learning program.
It indicates that the education department is also struggling to fund the necessary resources required for learning in public schools.
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