Buk bilong Pikinini (BbP) has this week graduated over a thousand five-year-old students, who are now well-prepared and ready to take the next steps in their education.
BbP’s program has shown year after year, that children who have attended the organisations’ Early Childhood Development program are well ahead of their peers and academically outperform those who have not had the opportunity to attend an early childhood learning program.
As part of BbP’s in-house developed curriculum, the children have been taught phonics, segmenting and blending and many are now able to read. They have been taught discipline and classroom behavior and are ready to focus on learning.
They have also enjoyed BbP’s Numeracy and Early STEM program and understand basic concepts of maths and problem solving. The have also received Financial Literacy lessons thanks to the organisations’ partnership with BSP.
The children have gained an appreciation of their culture and have this year studied the history of communication – from conch shells to mobile phones -during Literacy week. They also understand the importance of looking after the environment, have learnt about child rights, road safety and transport. (Some were even lucky to visit a PNG Air aircraft.) Thanks to the support of CPL and St John’s Ambulance the children have also learnt vital health and hygiene lessons.
BbP’s Teacher-Librarians receive on-going training throughout the year including on special needs and sign language as the program is inclusive.
This December all BbP’s Teacher-Librarians will also attend the organisations first Digital Training program to prepare the teachers for the introduction of the children’s Digital Learning program, which will be rolled out to all Library Learning Centres in 2021.
The comprehensive training program has been made possible thanks to Deloitte & Deloitte Digital, ExxonMobil PNG and the PNGAusPartnership.
BbP has also developed six new readers – featuring local children – entitled: “When I grow up I want to be …”. Six different professions are covered and the readers are designed both complement the organisations’ reading curriculum and to inspire the children to imagine their future. The readers have been developed as an extensions of Literacy Week advocacy videos created in partnership with Rober Weber. (See links below.)
The BbP program is aligned with the National Department of Education’s early childhood structure 3:6:6. While we wait for this to be implemented, BbP is doing its part as a member the ECD Alliance and has been delivering a comprehensive ECD program for more than 10 years now. BbP has developed a solid curriculum for PNG’s children and provides teacher training to both BbP teachers and school teachers and educators across the country in this highly efficient program.
In rural and remote communities, BbP’s program is particularly suited as a bridge from Tok Ples to English.
BbP is able to deliver its comprehensive Early Childhood Development program thanks to the generous support it receives from all its donors and partners in both PNG and Australia. (See banner below).
Leanne Resson, BbP Executive Officer said: “Despite this difficult year for everyone, it wonderful to see more than 1000 children graduating from our programs equipped with the skills to successfully transition to the next stages of their learning.”
Anne-Sophie Hermann, BbP Founder and Chair said: “There no time to waste, it is essential for the increase in literacy rates to start teaching the children to read at the foundational level. We are grateful for the tremendous and generous support we receive from our sponsors and partners in both PNG and Australia. We are looking forward to an exciting year in 2021 and to be introducing digital learning to the children.”
