Progress - Maybe?

It’s been a while since my last blog and between then and now I’ve been travelling the country doing fieldwork for three different projects in as many different provinces and touching base in a few more along the way. I have many blogs in my head and need to write about LSP and working with the British Council on the EETDP (Elementary Education Teacher Development Program) but for now I want to continue the story of ETTR (Elementary Teacher Training Reform) which is the one closest to my heart.

My last entry was written at a low point on the EETTR journey where I was doubting myself, VSO and the whole development process: I’m beginning to see the light.

I called a crisis meeting, time for hard talk, this is not working we have to give in or get help. The ETTR team leader resigned, the director of PNGEI agreed to invite VSO to take over the project management and allow both the VSO researcher and myself to take the lead alongside a new team leader (we will only work in partnership). The VSO education program manager flew in with a grant agreement and the researcher with an updated research proposal. A PNGEI elementary team meeting was called to thrash out the details. A new team leader was chosen and once again the project had wings.

Within two weeks:-

ü  Signed approval from the secretary of education and the superintendent elementary was secured.

ü  A check was released to VSO for the complete amount to cover all three research elements of the project.

ü  A team of research assistants was employed to conduct telephone interviews for the tracer study and workforce study from the VSO HQ in Madang.

ü  A VSO financial expert volunteer was recruited to lead the cost analysis.

ü  Fieldwork travel was slimmed down to focus groups in four provinces, one in each region.

ü  Travel release forms for elementary lecturers were signed.

ü  Flights and accommodation booked.

The well-oiled cogs of the slick VSO in-country education program team sprang into action and as always they delivered.

Mixed feelings about this: I am very happy that VSO have saved the floundering PNGEI research but angry and disappointed that donors and the DoE could not see fit to release funds to a national institution without the backing of an international NGO. It was always ambitious for PNGEI to take this project on and with the support of VSO they will succeed and I am very proud of what the PNGEI team has achieved. If there had been more support from the DoE and AusAid personnel in tackling the obstacles of systems and processes PNGEI could have got to this point by themselves.

VSO in PNG are blessed with an inspirational education project manager. His ability to exploit capacity building opportunities is immense. ETTR team members were flown into Madang to the VSO HQ to observe and take part in the telephone interview process and see the research team in action; they also had the opportunity to see how the VSO office works. One of the key points here was that PNGEI officers realised that although VSO is an international organisation most of the office personnel are PNG nationals and it deepened their understanding of the VSO philosophy of working in partnership. Members of the ETTR team who were feeling despondent felt valued once again and an integral part of the team.

I am here as a volunteer language lecturer because of my expertise in teaching language. I have many years’ experience in teaching; elementary and primary school children, teachers and student teachers in the UK, elementary, primary and secondary school children, teachers, student teachers and ESOL at all levels in Peru. All very well but what is needed more than anything is managerial, organisational and administration skills, moving on from the favourite PNGEI phrase – NATO (No Action Talk Only)  to making it happen.

The lecturers I work with are very qualified and experienced, many have post graduate diplomas or Masters degrees in leadership skills. There is a general awareness of leadership styles and techniques but what is lacking is management skills. Everyone wants to tell what needs to be done but there is a severe lack of doers.

Getting back to the point! My role therefore has been to manage the PNGEI end of the research, which essentially has been organising and managing the fieldwork. I am writing from Mount Hagen up in the awe inspiring Highlands of PNG where the air is cool, the vegetables to die for and the smiles of the local people fill you with warmth. I am travelling with two PNGEI lecturers to collect qualitative data from four provinces, one from each region of PNG. This is the second of the four, the first was in Bougainville representing the New Guinea Islands, Hagen represents the Highlands region and from here we will go to Vanimo, West Sepik to represent the Momase region then to Alotau, Milne Bay to represent the Southern region.

We are talking to teachers and teacher trainers in each region to gain a more detailed insight into their views on the teacher training courses provided by PNGEI. Most of the focus groups are being lead by one of the lecturers whilst the other lecturer and I record the responses – a challenge for my language skills as most teachers respond in Tok Pidgin! The rest of my responsibilities go like this:-

My job; getting ready to go

Ø  Contact provincial officials  arrange; lists of participants, arrange morning/afternoon tea, lunch, transport costs

Ø  Check and print; protocols, analysis frameworks, sign in sheets etc

Ø  Recap research training

My job in the field;

Ø  Courtesy visits to provincial bosses – meeting and greeting

Ø  Finances – banking, travel allowances, transport, food, accommodation – keeping it real!

Ø  Motivation and maintaining team focus

Ø  All admin – checking venues, arranging transport, giving out travel allowances, registration etc

Ø  Facilitating focus groups

To fellow VSO peeps reading this I know this is all very familiar and all part of a days work. The point I’m trying to make here (I think!) is that it could also be all part of a days work in a UK primary school. The setting is very different; certainly the resources available are very different but the organisational and managerial skills are the same. You need the same levels of diplomacy, problem solving skills, initiative and above all people management skills to drive change and make things happen in the UK as you do here and this is what I see as the key experience we bring. To be successful in capacity building in terms of organisation and management will truly bring sustainability to any project wherever it might be.

Phew! There is so much to get out to free my muddled mind! Writing is such a slow process for a bear of little brain and there are not enough hours in the day. I hope this makes some sense and next time I promise to write something a little less heavy and more anecdotal on some of the amazing, frustrating and hilarious experiences I’m having here.

Love to everyone at home I know I don’t communicate much but I think about you lots x

Focus Group with teacher trainers in Hagen

Our inspirational education program manager in action 

- not his best photo but the only one I had on this computer

Me and Susan, an elementary teacher trainer and also my banking body guard in Hagen

Wading through the mud

PNGEI Research – an exercise in patience; my greatest virtue!

For August and September I have official permission from the Department of Education to be working on the ETTR (Elementary Teacher Training Reform) project. I have been working on this project since I got here but as travel is planned it becomes full time and so following protocols VSO sought and received official permission.

PNGEI were given the project to manage by the DoE at the end of last year and when I arrived in January it was one of the first things I became involved in although it was never certain whether or not the capacity was there for it ever to get off the ground. I remain determined that it will.

There are two outcomes within the project that must be completed before the end of the year;

1.     Policy makers understand the workforce and cost issues surrounding elementary pre-service teacher training and can make informed decisions about reform

2.     Elementary teacher training reform plan agreed by all stakeholders

Over the last six months the ETTR working party split into three groups to complete the three research studies in order to fulfil outcome 1;

Group 1: Tracer study of graduates of both CET (Certificate in Elementary Teaching) programmes run by PNGEI

Group 2: Workforce study of lecturers and trainers on the CET programmes

Group 3: Cost analysis of both CET programmes and the CETT (Certificate in Elementary Teacher Training)

Proposals for all three studies have been completed and accepted by the DoE and AusAid representatives which was considered by all to be a major achievement but it now appears that was the easy part compared to getting out into the field.

There have been and still are many hurdles to be negotiated.

The greatest of which is accessing the funding through the current DoE systems. In order for cheques to be released for any necessary expenditure within the project 3 quotations must be obtained. This includes transport for researchers and participants (flights, PMVs, boats and car hire), accommodation for researchers and participants, venue hire, food (morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea) and stationary. This is an arduous task when planning activities throughout the country in 12 different provinces and involves reliance on support from provincial authorities where there are yet more protocols to follow.

Once all paper work is in place the approval letter signed by the secretary of education, first assistant secretary of education and the superintendent for elementary education must be attached and all documentation is passed to the accounts department of the DoE. At this point the paper work is checked by the DoE and AusAid accountants before being sent for processing. Time then becomes the biggest enemy as quotations become out of date and then the paper work is rejected and the whole process begins again as flights, hotels and venues have to be re-booked.

Unsurprisingly, hotels become irritated with an organisation that makes bookings it never fulfils and are reluctant to give further quotes. Provincial authorities also become less cooperative in finding venues and organising transport for participants when activities are constantly postponed. Therefore with every set back the challenge increases.

I suppose the point I am making here is that when I first doubted the capacity of PNGEI to run this project I was thinking of academic capabilities, inexperience in research, admin support and practicalities such as power cuts, no phone/fax, toner for the printer/photocopier etc. All of these things have played their part but DoE processes are the killer blow. It is six weeks now and there have been times when my frustration levels have hit very dizzy heights. I know that the DoE will soon ask for my support to write the project quarterly report for AusAid and we will have to declare that for the third quarter this year no donor money has been spent. There is every possibility that because of this AusAid will withdraw their funding from the project altogether.

Morale is very low in the PNGEI Elementary unit. Fingers are pointing from many directions and the lecturers within the unit feel as though they are shouldering much of the blame for the current state of Elementary education (which nobody would argue is anywhere near good). The last thing they need is to be made to feel even more inadequate by not being able to carry out a research study.

I wonder now wether I was wrong to support my colleagues in this endeavour in the first place. I think it’s a very exciting piece of research and changes to elementary education and particularly teacher training are essential. On a micro level though the whole process has contributed to making  the most experienced people in elementary education feel even more frustrated, down trodden and inadequate than they did before. This is not a desirable outcome for anyone. Was I wrong to push this project along and motivate people into doing something they perhaps don’t have the capacity to do?

As usual these are my thoughts as I continue to wade through the mud any inspiration would be very welcome peeps J

Well on a happy note I am posting this on Independence Day! Happy birthday PNG!!!

                 

 

Having a Ball in ENB!

Having a ball in East New Britain

I’m taking some time out from my usual work based reflective blogging to say I’m having a ball! After four weeks all told in East New Britain I have talked about the workshops and the conference, all of which was highly successful and rewarding but just this once I’m going to indulge in writing about after hours.

Four weeks of living and working together means you get to know each other pretty well warts and all and I think my wanwoks would agree that we don’t rub along too bad. You also begin to see the lecturers you’re working with in a different light as their various idiosyncrasies’ become apparent and altogether we become a team that at the end of the last week it was quite sad to see disseminate.

Anyway all in a weeks work we have, the mask festival with spirits coming in from the see at dawn, fire dance and fireworks; rugby, supporting the Gurias at a rugby league match and the Australian state of origin finale; eating out at KBR and GI hotels; taking to the dance floor with the KVR hotels’ live band; swimming in the sea from the KVR beach; BitaPaka war cemetery; Rabaul town, hotel and observatory and the chuffing volcano, hot springs, black sand and crazy kids at Matupit Island. I’m going to talk about them all!

Let’s start with a bit of culture!

Kokopo mask festival

The mask festival is all about spirits, dukduks, tumbuans  andmasalais, which is which and exactly what it all means I’m not entirely clear but I’ll do my best to give a rough idea. The whole event is a very male affair. All the spirits are men and the making of the masks and the performers themselves appear to be veiled in secrecy, women take no part in this and once a man is disguised by his mask he is no longer himself but a representative of the culture. This was evident when we went to the beach at dawn to witness the arrival of the spirits who come in by boat to mark the opening of the festival. I believe this signifies the Tolai people arriving in East New Britain from New Ireland and overcoming the Baining people who have been pushed further inland up into the hills. Although today this is becoming an invent that attracts many tourists, women were still asked to stand back when the men came ashore to respect the cultural tradition.

It was an extraordinary sight to see the boats gradually come closer and closer, all the time singing and dancing in what appeared to be one large mass until they separated out into eight separate boats of men dressed in the must incredible costumes. Lime was thrown from one boat to the other and all arrived on shore in a melee of dancing, singing, chanting and staged fighting.

Fire Dance

Part of the mask festival was the fire dance performed by the Baining people in huge masks with duck like beaks and an array of foliage. They paint their legs with an unknown substance that stops them burning themselves as they dance around, in and out of a large bonfire. The dance ends with them kicking the logs of the fire, sending embers flying until the fire dies. Another awe inspiring experience that made you feel privileged to be an observer.

BitaPaka war cemetery

Papua New Guinea had a big part to play in both world wars, something I was unaware of before coming here as the natural focus in the UK is obviously

The European war. This is the second war cemetery I’ve visited here and both have been extremely well maintained and a haven of peace and tranquility. I did somehow feel a little uncomfortable about what I felt to be the limited recognition of the amount of Papua New Guinean lives lost, as the emphasis is definitely on an Australian perspective. However I’m not knowledgeable enough to comment further and it was a moving experience.

Moving on to a bit of sport!

By far and away the biggest sport in PNG is rugby league with a strong following of both Australian and local teams. It seems fitting therefore that my first experience of a live rugby league match was in PNG. The Gurias (earthquakes) are the local East New Britain team and this was the third math I’d been to with the Gurias winning every time. Like any sporting event with a great atmosphere it was brilliant fun, replica shirts on we really got into the spirit of things, joining in with the chants – Hoo! Ha! – and cheering at shouting at all the right moments (we think!)

We also managed to fit in the last half of the Australian State of Origin series final match between the Maroons and the Blues. Lots of merriment as both sides have strong supporters in PNG and there were also a fair few Aussies around. Naturally I supported the Blues and they lost which was apparently the expected result.

And then a bit of history and geography

Rabaul

In 1994 Rabaul was flattened by the weight of ash raining down on it after the volcano Tavurvur erupted. Nothing is left of the former town apart from the Rabaulhotel which now stands alone in a black sand, desert landscape. The town has now been relocated a few kilometers up the road. It’s a quirky little hotel with an odd mixture of features from Japan, PNG and various colonial influences. The courtyard surrounded by rooms had a Latin American feel to it to me; it put me in mind of Frida’s family house in the film about FridaKahlo. Another oddity is that the restaurant serves the best Chinese food that I have ever tasted. Wonderful oriental flavours with greens to die for! (Greens are my favourite PNG food!)

                      

Driving out of Rabaul across the black desert towards Matupit,Tavurvur looms ever closer, rumbling away and belching plumes of smoke to feed the clouds we stop for a photo shoot and almost from nowhere a hoard of children selling all kinds of tut appear. Bags and jewelry of every kind are being thrust through the window and doors of the mini bus – 5 kina! 10 kina! We all dutifully bought things, what can you do eh?

We also picked up a guide for the rest of the journey who lead us across the sand to the hot springs and the sea. It has to be one of the most inspirational landscapes I have ever witnessed, the imposing sound of Tavurvur grumbling away as a soundtrack to the Spartan, black sand, the orange sulphur of the hot springs bubbling away and the steam drifting over the water. Imagine being a child and this is your world: I can’t begin to comprehend.

Eat, drink and be merry

On a more simple pleasures front our hotel was situated right on the coast so after a long days work we would do a quick change and meet up to walk down to the beach for a swim in the sea, no better way to revitalize after a long, hot day. The food at our hotel was not so great  - bacon carbonara served with a toasted cheese sandwhich, all sauces no matter the name amounted to gravy and chunks of fruit, rice and coleslaw with everything? However nearby hotels provided a sumptuous feast, particularly seafood chow mein, which was to die for( and not expensive for those of you worried about VSO budget!) On the last night of the editing workshop our hotel put on a free buffet for us and all the lecturers which was much appreciated by everyone. This coincided with the end of the mask festival and so we were treated to a wonderful fireworks display, which added to the occasion. The grand finale was a live band at the hotel bar who improved with every drink and had us all dancing in the rain before to long. The icing on the cake came when at two o’clock in the morning someone suggested a swim in the sea; fabulous idea, let’s go! So after a little gentle persuasion to get the gate unlocked off we trooped down to the sea. Two of the lecturers came with us, one of whom had never been in the sea before in his life. A perfect end to a glorious night

Not a bad week eh!

LSP Language Conference

Little Nerd

A little recap to start. The LSP (Language Support Programme) is run jointly by the NDOE (National Dept of Education) and VSO and is the primary project on which I work, supporting lecturers in two teachers colleges in Port Moresby, PNGEI (Papua New Guinea Education Institute) and Bomana Sacred Heart Teachers College (SHTC). All the 13 teachers colleges in PNG have a volunteer attached if not in residence.

One of the outcomes of LSP is to hold a language conference every year. The first one was held at Holy Trinity teachers’ college in December 2012 before I arrived and the second has just been held in June, at Kabaleo teachers’ college, Kokopo, East New Britain.

It was a wonderful celebration of VSO facilitating and capacity building – two strategies that I must admit I have at times been dubious about although I agree with the approaches in principle I was not sure wether in reality they truly bore success.

At this conference ach teachers’ college had the responsibility of giving a presentation for 1hr 15 minutes on an aspect of speaking and listening. The responsibility of the volunteers was basically to make it happen. At the previous conference reading was the focus and all the presentations were made by VSO and other stakeholders. This was the first time the teachers’ colleges had the responsibility of giving the presentations themselves. Kabaleo teachers’ college had the added feat of hosting the conference which after losing our LSP team leader proved an exhausting task for the poor volunteers in East New Britain! (Who by the way did an amazing job!)

The vast majority of language lecturers had never before had the opportunity to present to an audience of over 100 people, including members of the department of education, college principals and university heads of department. They all did so confidently and knowledgeably, discussing aspects of language learning that a year ago were unknown to them. Due to the LSP the language lecturers were behaving like a team of professionals knowledgeable in their subject. I realise this may sound like an outrageous claim to make with hints of colonial, expatriate, patronising dribble. I will try and explain why it is not.

Opportunities for professional development in PNG are extremely rare. All language lecturers have degrees and most have masters qualifications from either PNG, Australian or New Zealand universities but very few have experience of teaching in primary schools and their knowledge is extremely theoretical. Hence their love of Blooms Taxonomy for example! The in-service training we take for granted in the UK is by and large nonexistent.

What the LSP has done is given the opportunity for language lecturers to get together to share experience, ideas and concerns. A wealth of teaching and learning strategies combined with many years of experience in primary school teaching in a variety of settings have been presented by VSO volunteers from across the English speaking countries of the world. There is a consistent approach in methodology as language lecturers have been brought together from all regions of PNG and when back in their colleges across the country continue to be drip fed, slowly but surely with the same messages by the volunteers. This access to current teaching and learning strategies combined with the theoretical knowledge and invaluable cultural understanding that the language lecturers already have has undoubtedly led to changes, all be it small changes, in practice.

All the VSO volunteers are chosen for their expertise in their field but perhaps the greatest impact they make is in providing the platform and giving the opportunities for the people who know the most about education in their country to make a difference.

Getting meetings together, providing morning tea, organising transport, making phone calls or providing the credit for phone calls to be made, sending and receiving emails on behalf of others, putting toner in the printer, writing up and distributing minutes and many other simple, taken for granted tasks in our world make an immense difference to the development and progression of ideas in this world. This is successful facilitation.

Capacity building I believe is very much a two way street. I most certainly would say that I have contributed to language lecturers in PNG having a greater capacity to teach student teachers in the last six months. I would also say that my capacity to operate effectively in PNG would be zero without the constant support of lecturers in my college who guide me through the maze of protocols and procedures necessary to make things happen. It is and has to be a partnership.

So in a roundabout way I have explained to myself and hopefully to other perhaps doubting souls how facilitation and capacity building do work. The LSP language conference provided the evidence needed for me to see this and accept that the incredible feeling of frustration all of us suffer from time to time is worth it.

I’m going on to give an example of how facilitation and capacity building worked (or didn’t!) at SHTC and PNGEI. If I’ve bored you to tears already now might be a good place to stop reading!

The plan for the facilitation/ capacity building process for lecturers at SHTC and PNGEI was:

Ø  Meeting 1: Both colleges together discuss areas of interest within the given themes and come up with a working title and research question for each presentation. Provide initial background materials for lecturers around the themes and ask them to come to the next meeting with an abstract draft.

Ø  Meeting 2: Question and review abstracts, rewriting where necessary, confirm understanding and agree. Establish outcomes ‘What do we want the participants to learn?’ (each college separately)

Ø  Meeting 3: Create a power point together: question, check for mutual understanding, write, confirm. Suggest activity ideas: teaching strategies, groupings, resources. Give a session outline scaffold. Hand over the writing process and support the writing of the writing of the session outline referring back the power point. (each college separately)

Ø  Meeting 4: Talk me through the presentation: who’s leading which activity/ check resources/ timings/ space (both colleges together)

Ø  Conference: each college presents their presentation whilst I control the power point and help with activity organisation.

Lessons learned from this process were that scaffolding and confirming understanding are essential. Explain everything, no assumptions should be made at any point. It is easy to forget that everyone you are speaking to is working in their second or in a lot of cases third language and on top of that the version of English they are working with is not necessarily UK English. I have always been a firm believer in the simpler the better; if you can’t explain it without academic jargon then you don’t really know what you are trying to say. However this is not a popular approach here where the more academic and ‘sophisticated’ the language is the more respect it will command; never mind if anyone understands or not.

As could easily be imagined things didn’t always go exactly to plan! But we did get there , the presentations went ahead, everyone felt empowered and good about themselves with an eye to next time we will…A change in perception has been made.

Relationships

One of the things I was perhaps least prepared for in my volunteer role was the emotional challenge of building relationships. I have worked with a diverse mixture of people in terms of culture, class, belief systems and personalities over the years and in many contrasting settings with a variety of roles and responsibilities, all be it largely within education but I have never struggled so much as I am doing here.

Being a volunteer is a very odd thing as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before. In some ways it can make life easier because you don’t have a paid job and therefore there is less pressure to achieve targets and meet deadlines. In other ways it makes life more difficult because you have no power and no rights to information within your work place; you can suggest ideas and offer your services but you have no control over ultimate decision making. There is also always an awareness that you are representing an organisation that has a responsibility to other stakeholders who need to report on the impact of their investment.

What has this got to do with relationship building? In a word, trust, if you want to make an impact you have to work with people, people will only work with you if they trust you and to gain trust you have to build working relationships.

An added bonus in living away from home is that outside of work relationship building is also crucial. Away from your usual support networks, to stay sane you need your wantok. This can be equated to being on a reality TV show: Volunteer big brother house maybe? Being selective about whom you share your life with is not an option your hand is dealt and each player must negotiate a way to play, there are of course many hands and undefined rules which add spice to life.

I have had a week of emotional challenge, as one might have guessed reading this! It was my intention to illustrate what I am talking about with a week in the life of me and my working relationships; however I’ve decided it would be inappropriate as it concerns the lives of others.

Suffice to say that this week in my relentless attempt to build a working relationship with the team manager at work I have been ignored, offered buai, asked to present at a funders (AusAid) meeting, left standing in the street with a colleagues’ possessions in my arms, publicly apologised to, praised for working on so many projects and had demands to see my contract as I’m not performing my duties. How’s your week been? Ups and downs and round and round, I think I can make it to Friday happy hour and Monday the carousel begins again.

In my not so private life there has also been a hefty tide of turbulent wantok relationships ebbing and flowing around me following the arrival of a new intake of volunteers living below which I will not discuss for obvious reasons.

Em tasol

End of rant & love to the world

National Haus Krai just me 'umble thoughts

National Haus Krai PNG: a liklik samting

I feel that I want to say something about the national haus krai for domestic violence but I’m not quite sure what it is I want to say. An organisation called Women Arise organised a haus krai across 19 provinces in PNG and internationally in the US, UK, Australia and other countries across the world. A haus krai is essentially a wake and the idea was to mourn for the many, many PNG women and children who have suffered and died from domestic violence and speak out against this brutal oppression which is sadly common place and accepted as a way of life across the country.

It has been said that this is a PNG problem that must be resolved through cultural evolution which can only come from within; the many cultures that make up PNG must develop to a point where domestic violence is eradicated because there is no longer a desire or need for members of the society to treat each other in this way.

As an outsider I can understand this view point and agree that real changes in cultural practice are responsive to a perceived need or for communal advancement in some way however I felt compelled to take part in this day of awareness for the following reasons:

·         I live here and this will be my home, my community for the next 2 years

·         Violence in PNG dramatically affects my quality of life

·         I have a voice

·         I am a woman

Unnecessary justifications maybe but made all the same I went to the John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby last night to take part in a vigil of speeches, prayer and song. It was a religious event and I am not a religious person but if having god on your side helps then so be it. ‘The church’ as an institution has the necessary networks, resources and perhaps most importantly influence to make things happen.

I was moved by the sense of solidarity and purpose and inspired by the openness of speech. One after another stories were told of brutal violence witnessed. The stories were not new to anyone and have been well reported by the media, some even around the world, but they were brought home. People were not thinking what a terrible thing… or those poor people… or even blaming the Highlanders. There was a deafening silence of people truly reflecting, overcoming the shame that is often felt by Papua New Guineans and accepting individually that yes this was their problem; not a clan, tribe, province, government or even church, they had to do something about this.

This is just a fleeting moment and life in PNG today is the same as it was yesterday but from little things… and this is my liklik contribution.

Something a bit different eh!

Thanks for reading

Read PNG April

Read PNG

Travelling again has boosted the spirits and I again feel that I might be making a bit of progress with my relationship with PNG and understanding what I’m doing here. Over the fence to PNGEI sits the Curriculum Development and Assessment Department (CDAD) of the Department of Education. It is on the same site as PNGEI and literally only separated by a fence but the gates in the fence are symbolically welded shut: communication between the two institutions is effectively zero.

CDAD is however the home of a World Bank multi-donor funded project called Read PNG. This project is co lead by an ex VSO volunteer with whom I have now worked on two different workshops alongside a colleague from PNGEI in the role of capacity building as well as facilitating.

Read PNG have carried out comprehensive research into reading levels at elementary and lower primary level in the Madang province of PNG through an EGRA (Early Grade Reading Assessment) study. From the findings of this study a reading scheme of work was written comprising of a teachers manual with scripted lessons and built in assessment tasks and a student reader with decodable texts and short stories. I became involved with planning and facilitating a weeks training on using the scripted lessons and assessments for 60 primary school teachers from 15 Madang schools.

The principal aim of the training model was to ensure that teacher’s felt confident to use the scripted lessons in the classroom. For the trial to be successful we wanted to be sure that teacher’s understood the need to stick to the script without expanding or improvising (not easy for any teacher as we all like to feel autonomous in our own classrooms). Having sufficient knowledge of phonics and phonemic awareness and being able to use this on a practical level was also vital for the teachers. Therefore for the first two days facilitator led sessions were dominant. We modeled teaching scripted lessons, taught sessions on basic phonics and phonemic awareness, taught and modeled strategies for using both the decodable texts and the stories in the student readers and held practical sessions on games to develop phonic skills. The next three days were given to practice and this in my opinion was where the training model was most successful. Teachers had the opportunity to micro teach parts of lessons within their groups and receive feedback and support from their colleagues before eventually each getting the chance to teach a complete lesson and receive one to one feedback from one of the facilitators.

In measuring the overall success of the training we will see how effective the lessons were in practice when the teachers return for the second weeks training in mid June. By then they will have delivered the first six weeks of lessons and the children will have undertaken the first end of unit assessment.

Another aim of the training week from a VSO point of view was the capacity building aspect for the language lecturers. Counterparts accompanied both my VSO colleague and me in both the planning and training stages. This gave them the opportunity to develop their expertise and skills in language training and also gave us invaluable knowledge with reference to the realities of the classroom and the politics of schools.

For me it was a great week on all fronts, topped off by all the teachers and ourselves being taken on a cruise around the islands off the coast of Madang at the end of the last day. A positive end sits long in the memory, I look forward to part two!