The East New Britain Provincial Administration Education Division recently conducted a one-week Provincial In-service Training (PIST) for all the teachers in the province.
The PIST week program is an annual exercise conducted during the term two holiday every year for teachers to undergo in-service training as part of continuous professional development and this year’s Theme for the PIST week was ‘Training for Quality Teaching and Learning’.
Conduct of the PIST week program were organized in sectors; Basic Education (District clusters) and the Secondary Sector which was conducted in three groups which are, Science and Mathematics in Kokopo Secondary school, Humanities at the Our Lady of Sacred Heart Secondary school (OLSH) and Business and Technology at the Don Bosco Technical Secondary school.
Meanwhile the vocational sector held theirs at the Woolnough Vocational centre whilst the Primary schools coordinated the in-service in respective venues, LLGs and districts where it was convenient for the teachers to travel to and fro during the one-week program.
According to Kokopo Secondary School Senior Professional Assistant, Pius Reva, the exercise was critical this year given the introduction of Standard Base Curriculum (SBC) and the National Certificate Program (NC). Reva told the teachers that this in-service is important because of the SBC curriculum and before the full implementation of the program all the teachers must be familiarized with this curriculum.
“Teachers already know the content but this program is to help teachers to know more about the skills so that it makes teaching easier and interesting for the learning of our students.”
He encouraged the teachers to learn as much as possible from the sessions and to adapt to the changes that are coming in the education system.
He further stated that to implement this curriculum successfully they must change the practices and the behaviours that they have conducted in themselves and in the students.
Meanwhile, ENB Education Advisor, Alkan Mararang, stated that the program was an opportunity for the teachers to learn from each other to deliver teaching and learning in the classrooms.
“The core responsibility of the heads is to deliver the PIST week in ENB province which include providing leadership, coordination and communication between the venue, coordinators or team leaders, inspectors and the office of the advisor.”