Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST) announced a new curriculum for Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Diploma in Teaching (DipT) program across all teachers colleges in Papua New Guinea beginning in 2020 academic year. This was announced to the public DHERST Quarterly Newsletter Issue 2, Vol 2, 2019.
Divine word university has already implemented the curriculum in its campuses in Rabaul, Wewak and Holy Trinity College in Mt. Hagen, in the Western Highlands province in the highlands which is an affiliated institution with Divine Word University, the current enrollment figure is now over 100 students. The rest of the Teachers Colleges will implement the new curriculum in 2020 academic year.
According to the Newsletter, the program’s distinctive feature of is ” its ability to offer specialist electives in mathematics, science and language, providing graduates with the background in pedagogy and content knowledge that will prepare them for subject leadership in their chosen electives during the early part of their professional careers”. Also included in the curriculum is the introduction to school leadership and management which will prepare graduates for middle school management level positions such as deputy headmasters, subject masters and etc. This part is one of the missing links in the current curriculum.
To support the Teachers colleges, the DHERST has already commencing conducted Capacity Needs Assessment (CNA) exercises to assess the readiness of the colleges in terms of introducing the program to students and their staff as well. All teachers colleges have been visited and transition is expected to be smooth. The implementation is being assisted by Heads of subject strands and Deputy Principal-Academic’s office in the respective institutions.
To ensure the curriculum meets the government’s aspirations and national educational targets, it will be reviewed in the third quarter of 2020 by a panel of experts sourced from Teachers colleges, universities and church agencies and the review panel will report the findings and recommendations to the National Higher and Technical Education Board (NHTEB).