Activities in Papua New Guinea

1. Introduction & Background

The change from an Outcome Based Education to a Standard Based Curriculum (SBC) has presented a few challenges for the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government. One such challenge is the need to train teacher students at primary teacher colleges to qualify to teach subjects that are aligned to the new curriculum.

The technical cooperation Project for "Strengthening Primary Teacher Pre-service education in Mathematics and Science (STEPMAS)" now aims to develop lecturers' manuals and teacher student modules for teaching mathematics and science in primary schools. Lecturers and teacher students at the 15 primary teacher colleges in PNG will use these manuals and student modules.

Prior to the inception of the STEPMAS project, JICA supported the National Department of Education to develop mathematics and science textbooks and teacher manuals that aligned to the SBC for students from grades 3-6 under the "Quality Improvement for Mathematics and Science Education" project (QUISME) (2016-2019).

QUISME project concluded in 2019 after the content was developed. The Government of Japan also provided a total of K1.5 million as a bilateral agreement between the governments of Japan and PNG in 2018 for the printing and distribution of these textbooks and teacher manuals to all district education offices in PNG's 21 provinces. Today, pupils and teachers at primary schools use these textbook and teacher manuals respectively.

An end line survey conducted after the conclusion of the QUISME project reported the need to improve the teaching of mathematics and science at Primary Teacher Colleges. This led to the inception of the new STEPMAS project.

2. Basic Information

• JICA Cooperation Scheme: Technical Cooperation Project
• Target Development Sector: Education
• Target SDGs: 4
• Counterpart Organization (Web URL): Department of Higher Education, Research, Science & Technology & National Department of Education
• Duration: Jan 2021 - April 2025
• Target Provinces, Location: 15 provinces
• Gender:
  STEPMAS attempts to fulfill aspirations reflected in the current government's education plan and SDG 4 and seeks to address underlying causes of gender disparities that hinder equal access to education; making it the first JICA project in PNG to pioneer the approach of capturing and addressing gender related issues within the parameters of the project's activities.

3. Outline of Project

• Project purpose
  Quality of lectures in mathematics and science in teachers' colleges is improved by utilizing developed students' modules and lecturers' manuals
• Overall goal
  Teachers' college students' capacity to teach mathematics and science is enhanced
• Outputs
  1. Draft of students' modules and lecturers' manuals in mathematics and science strand for teachers' colleges aligned with PSD are completed.
  2. Draft of students' modules and lecturers' manuals developed as Output 1 is perfected through the process of tryout of the draft.
  3. DHERST's capacity to develop and perfect students' modules and lecturers' manuals for teachers' colleges I enhanced.

4. More information

• Press Release_25 lecturers learn new way of teaching for Primary Teacher Colleges Dec 2021 (PDF)