Papua N​ew Guinea Journal of Education
ISSN: 0031 - 1472
Papua N​ew Guinea Journal of Education
ISSN: 0031 - 1472
The Story of the June Valley ECE Center
By Mr. Rupa Maino, Teacher-in-Charge (TIC) of ECE June Valley Pre-School
I, Rupa MAINO, theTIC for the June Valley Preparatory School, write in brief about how we started implementing the ECE policy when when directed to do so by Superiors like Mr Peter KANTS - FAS of NCDC education division. We began trialling the ECE in 2022 and through this year, 2023. When it all began, I had to face steep challenges, particularly regarding age-appropriate infrastructure and teaching materials to implement ECE – these were very difficult. So, in 2022, I had to trial with one class only; but the demand for ECE classes (4-5 years old) escalated so quickly to the 1:70 teacher-to-students ratio, which means that we had one teacher to a classroom of 70 children. This was not conducive to effective work with such young children. At the same time, we had to improvise in order to ensure that the activities we could cacarry out really helped our students learn. So many challenges came my way, but our teacher, Mr Jason Eric (he had graduated in ECE in 2021), tried his very best up until now, that the school academic year for 2023 has just ended...
So, the situation is this: whatever the Superiors from the Office advise us teachers to do, we do – because we believe that “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,” as the Chinese saying goes. Little things, like a child learning a letter and beginning to recognize a word through putting sounds together, matter. The younger the children are, the easier it is for them to learn these things – and these small things lead to bigger things, like learning everything, starting from Grade One. The ECE program is extracted and simplified from the Prep syllabus and teachers’ guidebooks. Mostly, children enjoy dancing and singing when a boom box is played; they sing to pre-recorded English children’s songs and rhymes, learning the sounds and the alphabet, using bilum books. We have seen the change in our children, how they got transformed through this ECE program. Our major problem now is infrastructure. ECE toilets and classrooms must be be isolated from the Primary School facilities which cater for bigger children. This will be more appropriate for the betterment and future of our PNG children.
Mr Rupa MAINO-TIC ECE Center at June Valley Primary School
12-12-2023
PROGRESS @ UNIVERSITY OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CENTER (ECEC)
By Rose Kemo, TIC of UPNG ECEC
Tel: (+ 675) 7376 4240
I, Ms Rose Kemo of UPNG ECEC, am well aware (based on my many years of experience, working with very young children) that kids learn best when they start early, grouped in their Early Learnings and ages from 3 to 4 years and 5 to 6 and 7 years.
It’s interesting to see how the youngest of kids move and sing to the action songs and rhymes, how easily they learn hundreds of new tunes, sounds, and words which they pick up on the fly during play and games. These activities are the Stepping Stones that lay the foundations for all their further learning. By the age of 5, they become keen and able students of phonics, lyrics and rhymes in reading classes.
Early childhood is the best time to direct and guide young kids’ Spiritual, Mental, Physical and Social growth – and we at UPNG ECEC are so happy to see how quickly and how well our students learn. Some of them come from homes where English is not even spoken, but they pick it up so easily, within weeks, just playing with their peers in pre-school. We are happy to see that our children want to come to school, that they enjoy their school activities, and that they are eager to learn more of what we teach them.
Over the 10 years of my work here, I have seen time and again how the skills acquired in UPNG ECEC (most importantly, English skills) have helped so many children move smoothly on to Lower Primary and do better in school after that. Early Childhood Education, Early Learnings are the way to go for students’ academic success, improving the Quality of Education and, thus, ensuring the sustainable development of Papua New Guinea. I hope that the Government of PNG will steer our nation down the ECE path, the fastest way to reach our Vision 2050.