With 117 kids at Evara Primary School in Kikori District, dedicated and seasoned volunteer teacher Rodney Taria of the National Volunteer Services (NVS) is embarking on a quest to educate youngsters of Gulf Province. In honor of World Teacher's Day, which is observed on October 5, this is the tale of a man who was picked from 300 applications to teach at Evara in 2023 and has since grown to be a vital member of the community. He went to Pangia Primary School in 1979 and is from the Pangia district in the Southern Highlands Province. After that, he attended Pangia Provincial High School to finish his secondary education in 1988 before continuing on to Balob Teacher's College in Morobe. “Whenever the teacher used to leave the classroom, I would pick up the chalk and pretend to be the teacher.” “I used to tell my classmates, if you want to report me to teacher, then go ahead because I’m going to be a teacher.” A lifelong dream of his to teach, he began his career in 1991 in Pangia, where he was based for three years. He transferred to Central province, where he taught from 1991 to 2010. “I resigned in 2010 due to family obligations and was recruited by Ginigoada Foundation, working in various roles such as a team leader, trainer and driver while working there.” “While I was with Ginigoada, I also attended two phonics courses, on creative phonics and also child phonics, so I’ve got a good wealth of experience, and I just flow well with kids.” He noticed that it had been the trend for students to not continue their studies after Grade three, owing to teacher disappearances, which is why he has taken it upon himself to enroll and encourage students to go to school. “There were plenty of challenges that came – when I started up the school again, I saw that the school was right in the bush and had been closed for more than 10 years.” Committed to the National Government’s ‘No child left Behind’ education policy, as Operator of the Papua LNG project, TotalEnergies EP PNG Limited (TotalEnergies), partnered with NVS in 2019, to ensure there is an experienced volunteer teacher placed in Evara to educate the children. His first class of Grade four students consisted of 30-year-olds, the oldest being 34, five of them being adults between the ages of 34 – 35 years old. Now he teaches seven classes, splitting his time every day between two classes. “When I see the bigger kids, I encourage them by telling them, you are going to do grade four. “It started from nothing, even my current batch of students, they never went to elementary or had any form of schooling before this.” “I tell them, school is for everyone, there’s nobody stopping you from learning.” “Currently, I teach grades three, four and five, a total of 117 students.” “I don’t face hard times here because the kids are my strength.” He teaches Community Living, Language, English, Mathematics, Environmental studies, Physical Education and Agriculture. Next year he anticipates teaching over 200 students. “I will have my first batch of student graduate in 2027 – his ambition is to see the school upgraded into a Junior High School, because I would like to see them continue on.” “We have enough space here and can accommodate boarding students.” He has managed to draw a large number of students from the coast of Orokolo, Purari, Wabo and beyond, who opt to stay with family in Evara while attending school. “I’m really proud of my kids, they can read and write and follow along, it’s just the speaking that we’re working on.” “TotalEnergies has also given me 23 cartons of library books (1,000 books) through their partnership with Buk bilong Pikinini.” He explains that he always keeps the library open for students, to take a book and read, further encouraging them with a quiz competition for all the children on phonics every Fridays. “TotalEnergies takes care of my rations every month and NVS takes care of me on a monthly basis (allowances) so I genuinely enjoy it here.” After it had been noted as a need by the community for the teacher to have a house, the Project partnered with Pacific Development Construction to provide a teacher’s house and a new fully furnished double classroom. “I want to thank TotalEnergies; I’m privileged to live in a house like this in my lifetime so thank you very much TotalEnergies. Teaching was my dream and that dream came true. I love my job.”