Educational Hazard In Solomon Islands

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31564, 29 December 1967, Page 6

Educational Hazard In Solomon Islands

With the recent establishment of secondary departments in schools in the British Solomon Islands, teachers had to be wary of the danger of the development of an academic elite that could not be absorbed because of the few opportunities for skilled workers. Miss K. M. Holgate, principal of the secondary department of the Pamua Girls’ School, run by the Melanesian Mission, said in Christchurch yesterday. “At present there are wide opportunities for girls in the teaching and nursing professions, and for boys there are jobs in the carpentry, building and engineering trades,” she said. “Many boys, however, must be prepared to return to their villages as plantation managers ” I Miss Holgate said that one of the greatest problems faciig the schools was the shortage of trained teachers. There was also a need for more schools, especially for children in the isolated villages, but because of the teacher shortage some schools had already been closed. Although most of the teachers in the secondary departments were Europeans, teachers in the junior and senior primary schools were Melanesians who had had some education but were not fully trained. Miss Holgate is one of only two qualified teachers at ths Pamua Girls’ School. In the eastern Solomons, the school has a roll of 190. Of these 31 are in the secondary department, which consists of forms I and 11. These are equal to forms 111 and IV in New Zealand.

I The education programme Itn the secondary department lis varied. It includes instrucItion in English, which is used | officially in all schools, core mathematics, health, science, geography, history, clothing, music, art, religion and gardening. I A few of the girls at the school who are not accepted for training in the Government Teachers’ College stay for further teaching education and also help with teaching in the primary department. “Another of our greatest problems is that so many of the pupils enter schools at a late age.” said Miss Holgate. “The age, for example, in form II of the Pamua School ranges from 15 to 24 years.” In spite of these problems, however, the introduction of secondary school education had improved the standards considerably, she said. All students were eager to learn, and even those who could not afford to pay school fees were not excluded from school.

I Although school holidays are observed, most of the pupils stay at school the whole year, returning home only three times in their

school life. This is at the end of the junior primary, senior primary, and secondary stages. Miss Holgate, who is in New Zealand on three months holiday, is from England Before joining the Pamua School two years and a half ago. she worked for five years in New Zealand at the Wanganui Girls’ College and with the Vocational Guidance Service in Lower Hutt.