The National, Monday 28th May, 2012
By SALLY TIWARI
THE level of education in community colleges throughout Papua New Guinea has been raised following the launching of a new satellite.
It will enable education through distance learning, video conferencing, e-learning, e-examination and e-libraries.
Director of the community education secretariat Asseneth Tugiau said the satellite would address the shortage of teaching staff because teachers could teach online.
Tugiau said this would also reduce the hassle of moving teachers about as teachers could reach all other community colleges through this arrangement.
She said there were 10 community colleges in the country which were running parallel courses along vocational training centres.
She said, due to the problems in acquiring land to build new facilities, the way forward was to utilise existing facilities and trainers.
Tugiau said there were 10 colleges to be set up in parallel with other vocational centres.
She said 22 vocational teachers would go to India next month for a two-week induction on the community education concept.
First assistant secretary for technical and vocational education training, Dr Uke Kombra, said community colleges gave a second chance to those who were left out by theory-based curriculum.
Kombra said the PNG government had committed K130 million to establish 89 community colleges across the four regions in the country with a concessional loan assistance of US$35 million (K76 million).
He said the people would benefit from the college system once it was fully operational.

Source: http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/33455