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長田，INTEPRETATIONOF SCIENCE CURRICULUM BY TEACHER AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL OFEDUCATIONINPAPUANEW GU町EA(pNG)
EducationあrSpecialized Subject
Ma
tter and Field In飴rnationalEducation CourseLAVAKI Gandhi
PNG education system has come under scrutiny due to the decline in
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i
teracy， Numeracy and Scientific Thinking standards. Through this JICA scholarship and training here in Japan i ht as given me the oppo巾nityto陪searchinto the causes and effects and the issues and challenges that the country has. This research not only investigates the areas that need to be add問 sed b叫 also provides manageable re∞
mmendations and suggestions on how these challenges and issues伺 nbe handled. Concems raised by the academic∞
mmunity 骨ひm PNG tertiary institutions sounded the waming signals in mid-2000陪garding poor English proficiency and dwindling enrolment ratl田 in Sci聞 岱 制ds of studies at the Universities. These concems we陪 brushed aside and the system kept going.When 陪 鵠arche陪， 回 pecially from the education system， looked thoroughly into the issues and problems， curriculum implemen匂tion and teacher training was one of the major a陪asof∞
ncem， t became ei vident that the system was crumbling under its own pli邸 sureor a crisis was looming ahead. Many c出 岱 blamethe OBE syS'也mof education. They have羽 id社wasthe curriculum that was very di而cultto implement The teacher found比difficult to implement Supervisor: OZAWAHiroaki be伺 use they themselves were unable to understand i.
t
This should have been a cause for concem when the teacher∞
uld not understand the curriculum requirements. However， a curriculum is the陪tobe implemented by a welト trained and academically motivated teacher who fully understand the requirements of the curriculum to be able to implement it successfully. Hence， the universallaw of cause and effect.'‘A goOO education lays the path for a胎 悔rquality of Irre. There have been many S'加di田 done，bothfOlimal and informal， that show the effects of edu伺tionor lack thereof in a person's life." (Anonymous). This quote indicates the b陪wing troubles of a system that needs to change imm剖iatelyfor the国:tterrnentof the future gene剖 on.Many of the country's a回demi剖 Iy bright students get absorbed into官eldslike mining， medicine， law， and commeliα刈nven sectors because those jobs pay well. Unlike teachingめe錨laryis
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nsidel1凶verylow50 the attraction to theぬachingjobs a陪 nottaken up by the academically bright but by the students who are average or below perforrners. Here is where the伺 useand effect law applies. By recru胤ngan average or凶 owaverage問 隠on to become a teacher， you would ex間以abelow or average陪sul.
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PNG凶U白百on system− 334 − recruited grade 10 leave隠 who were not
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nsidered for田lectionto do grade 11. They were academically incapable of going further but they were selected to teach children who 問 U陀da solid foundation to be nurturl凶 intothe education cycle. And this cycle of low academic pe巾rman回scannot stop until the system伺 n startto rec山比andtrain teachers who have done well a回demicallyto be able to teach thestudents， then changes will occur. iIts like a generation has al陪ady加ende説royedby this decision to recruit grade 10 leavers. Even though the education system has tried i包bestto 官xthe recrui加entof teachers for this level， the law on causes and e悔
c
t
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is still in the cycle and will take longer toweed out. The Govemment of PNG has abolished a system and asked for a new system to be implemented now known as SBE. The intention of this model is to raise standards in English， Mathematics， and Science. Therefore， in this re鵠 ar出， I hope tofindthe causes of the declining standards and how to allevia恰 t ti hrough cost-e'仔ective st悶t句ies.Many teachers have been teaching in the system for over ten yea陪 alreadyand will not re討reanytime 500n 50 whatever that i5 in the basket we just have to deal with比andmoveon. The research of four schools in the two provinces provides the sampling of urban. and rural locations should be able to give a pers問ctiveon the challenges each 10回世on have. The ultimate goal of this research from my v氾wpoint is to s鵠 the aspiring teacher candidates (child陪n)si紺ngin the classrooms to 国 highlymotivated and gain as much leaming experien白 from their teache陪 especially through scient市cthinking and reasoning so that i f they become teachers they can reciprocate what they have leamt back to who they teach using the leaming experience they have.
