Wading through the mud

PNGEI Research – an exercise in patience; my greatest virtue!

For August and September I have official permission from the Department of Education to be working on the ETTR (Elementary Teacher Training Reform) project. I have been working on this project since I got here but as travel is planned it becomes full time and so following protocols VSO sought and received official permission.

PNGEI were given the project to manage by the DoE at the end of last year and when I arrived in January it was one of the first things I became involved in although it was never certain whether or not the capacity was there for it ever to get off the ground. I remain determined that it will.

There are two outcomes within the project that must be completed before the end of the year;

1.     Policy makers understand the workforce and cost issues surrounding elementary pre-service teacher training and can make informed decisions about reform

2.     Elementary teacher training reform plan agreed by all stakeholders

Over the last six months the ETTR working party split into three groups to complete the three research studies in order to fulfil outcome 1;

Group 1: Tracer study of graduates of both CET (Certificate in Elementary Teaching) programmes run by PNGEI

Group 2: Workforce study of lecturers and trainers on the CET programmes

Group 3: Cost analysis of both CET programmes and the CETT (Certificate in Elementary Teacher Training)

Proposals for all three studies have been completed and accepted by the DoE and AusAid representatives which was considered by all to be a major achievement but it now appears that was the easy part compared to getting out into the field.

There have been and still are many hurdles to be negotiated.

The greatest of which is accessing the funding through the current DoE systems. In order for cheques to be released for any necessary expenditure within the project 3 quotations must be obtained. This includes transport for researchers and participants (flights, PMVs, boats and car hire), accommodation for researchers and participants, venue hire, food (morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea) and stationary. This is an arduous task when planning activities throughout the country in 12 different provinces and involves reliance on support from provincial authorities where there are yet more protocols to follow.

Once all paper work is in place the approval letter signed by the secretary of education, first assistant secretary of education and the superintendent for elementary education must be attached and all documentation is passed to the accounts department of the DoE. At this point the paper work is checked by the DoE and AusAid accountants before being sent for processing. Time then becomes the biggest enemy as quotations become out of date and then the paper work is rejected and the whole process begins again as flights, hotels and venues have to be re-booked.

Unsurprisingly, hotels become irritated with an organisation that makes bookings it never fulfils and are reluctant to give further quotes. Provincial authorities also become less cooperative in finding venues and organising transport for participants when activities are constantly postponed. Therefore with every set back the challenge increases.

I suppose the point I am making here is that when I first doubted the capacity of PNGEI to run this project I was thinking of academic capabilities, inexperience in research, admin support and practicalities such as power cuts, no phone/fax, toner for the printer/photocopier etc. All of these things have played their part but DoE processes are the killer blow. It is six weeks now and there have been times when my frustration levels have hit very dizzy heights. I know that the DoE will soon ask for my support to write the project quarterly report for AusAid and we will have to declare that for the third quarter this year no donor money has been spent. There is every possibility that because of this AusAid will withdraw their funding from the project altogether.

Morale is very low in the PNGEI Elementary unit. Fingers are pointing from many directions and the lecturers within the unit feel as though they are shouldering much of the blame for the current state of Elementary education (which nobody would argue is anywhere near good). The last thing they need is to be made to feel even more inadequate by not being able to carry out a research study.

I wonder now wether I was wrong to support my colleagues in this endeavour in the first place. I think it’s a very exciting piece of research and changes to elementary education and particularly teacher training are essential. On a micro level though the whole process has contributed to making  the most experienced people in elementary education feel even more frustrated, down trodden and inadequate than they did before. This is not a desirable outcome for anyone. Was I wrong to push this project along and motivate people into doing something they perhaps don’t have the capacity to do?

As usual these are my thoughts as I continue to wade through the mud any inspiration would be very welcome peeps J

Well on a happy note I am posting this on Independence Day! Happy birthday PNG!!!