Boroko: A week-long Annual Conference aimed at updating catholic education secretaries and coordinators on education policies and enhancing teaching skills was held from 3rdto 8thMay.
Hosted by the National Catholic Education Secretariat (NCES) of the Catholic Bishops Conference, the program had 33 representatives from the dioceses in PNG gathered at the Emmaus Conference Centre.
Officially opening the conference was Secretary for Education, Dr Uke Kombra, where he spoke about the interventions and reforms of the education department.
Following this, Bishop of Kerema, Bp Pedro Baquero sdb, gave a talk on identity, dialogue and on new evangelisation in the schools. He highlighted retreats, morning and afternoon prayers and religious education in the lessons. Resolutions were then made to promote these activities in schools.
The sessions throughout the week focused on the 1.6.6 Structure, FODE Expansion, Project Proposals, School Minimum Standard Frame work, Curriculum updates (ECE & CCVE), Board of Management Roles and Responsibilities, Teacher Appointment Process, Education Policy Formulation, SLIP Policy, Child Protection Policy and IT Training.
Present to facilitate these sessions were Mrs Jean Tarviri, Director General Services; Joyce Pogla, Senior Prof. Assistant FODE General Services; Roslyne Kuniata, Caritas Australia; Mr Paul Ainui, Teacher Education &Inspections Division; Mr Ghandi Lavaki, Curriculum Division; Mr Arulappan, Measurement Services Division; Maini Ugaia Commissioner for Operation of Teaching Services Commission and Peter Kants, Policy & Planning. Also, present from the Catholic Bishops Conference Sr Ancy John, Right Relationships in Ministry Secretary and Zico Mark, Information and Technology Department.
According to Mr Michal Ova, NCES Secretary, the Secretariat had invited resource people from the Department of Education (DOE) to speak about the many reforms and policies that are in place.
“We brought in resource people so that they can update our education secretaries and coordinators on these policies and reforms especially in agency education and how we are to support the Department of Education in implementing the various policies and plans,” he stated.
Mr Ova also stated that the diocesan representatives presented their regional reports and areas where challenges are major or common, the NCES will make resolutions and recommendations to the Bishops at the Annual General Meeting in June to consider.
The NCES team will be travelling in the coming months to the dioceses for monitoring and evaluation where they will follow up with the CES and CEC representatives to see if they have actioned and implemented what has been shared at this conference.
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