The Failed Education System of PNG: Unitech Students Are the Best Proof

By PNG Educator

Unitech students continue to show an amazing lack of writing ability in that during the last month they have sent hardly any letters to the newspapers to explain their situation and what they are boycotting for.  

On the other hand, the government and the agents of evil in the Unitech Saga have repeatedly and extensively expressed themselves in writing via our newspapers.   They have been writing press releases that the newspapers pick up and print, always giving the government’s propaganda.  The side of evil has also been writing letters to the newspapers to present the Unitech saga in a negative light.  They are winning the media war all because Unitech students seem uncomfortable or unskilled at writing.

Why are the students so unable to write a simple letter to the editor?  It is testimony of the pathetically education that our children now receive from our public schools, starting from Grade 1 and continuing through university.   If our children had grown up in other countries and finished school with such poor reading and writing skills, they’d be lucky to find a job as a toilet cleaner!  Consider that these are the very students who will be running PNG in the coming decades. 

It is no wonder that employers won’t hire Unitech graduates nor even UPNG graduates these days.   Compare PNG university graduates against Australian university students who are quite skilled at organising letter writing campaigns, get their letters regularly published in the Australian newspapers and write press releases that are better written than our Prime Minister’s department produces!    It’s another sad commentary on the state of education in PNG. 

Fact is, the government and the allies of evil in the Unitech Saga probably either got an international school standards education or went through school 10 or 20 years ago.  At that time graduates came out with a far better education, and thus show greater abilities at writing the newspapers and communicating effectively enough that newspapers editors often publish what they write.   

Because our Unitech students have such low proficiency at writing, the agents of evil are easily winning the media war.     Consider that 50,000 or more people read the National’s articles and letters every day (that is the circulation of The National), and at least 30,000 read the Post Courier.  Getting your voice heard in the newspapers is fundamental to winning any struggle against evil.   

While the agents of evil in the Unitech Saga are getting their messages out more effectively throughout the country, they haven’t been that smart at covering up their intentions.    A beautiful example appeared in Tuesday’s National letters page.  It is a letter by “Concerned Parent” of Port Moresby and is hilarious in its own way.   Here it is:

“I would like to bring to the attention of the people responsible for peace and order at the University of Technology in Lae about drunkenness on campus.  Lately during weekends, the campus resembles night clubs.  There are drunkards everywhere and students who need to focus on their studies are disturbed.  These frightened students lock themselves in their rooms.  Where are the authorities and what are they doing about this nuisance or are they waiting for something to explode?  Right now, innocent students are affected and it is happening right under the noses of the authorities.  This is unacceptable.  This is supposed to be a premier university, a place of peace and quietness and a place for learning, not a settlement disco club.  It is supposed to be breeding the best brains to lead this nation forward.  Or is this the ripple effect of the Vice-Chancellor debacle?  I ask the authorities to do something fast before the campus explodes into chaos.”

The letter above is rubbish for the following reasons. 

First the letter pushes a little bit too strongly the tired old disinformation message that government was pushing -- that Unitech is in chaos and government must do something about it. The government spreads this disinformation to give an excuse to send in the police or declare a State of Emergency and forcefully end to the boycott.  If that happens, Unitech students will have no one to blame but themselves, because they proved such a failure at counteracting the government’s viewpoint.  Also, if they allow ANY disturbance of the peace on campus through drunken behavior or any disorderliness they are handing the government exactly what it wants.   
CONTROL THE DRUNKS AND STOP ALLOWING ALCOHOL TO BE SMUGGLED INTO CAMPUS!

Another laughable comment from “Concerned Parent” is that the disorderliness is a problem because serious students are focusing on their studies right now.   Hello?  The students haven’t had any classes for nearly a month.  Unitech hardly uses any textbooks anymore because of the cost.  So what is there to study in the first instance?

It is obvious that if this letter was genuinely written by a parent living in Moresby hearing reports from their students, this would not be the information they would be getting from their kid.  And of course the parent themselves would have no real idea what was going on at Unitech.  Most likely the writer is nothing more than an O’Neill/Baloiloi/Kavanamur/Stagg/Saulep supporter who is trying to stir up trouble in the hopes the police will invade what the great majority of reports say is a peaceful campus. 

The letter concludes by asking what does this all mean to the future of our nation since Unitech “is supposed to be breeding the best brains to lead this nation forward”.    Concerned parent, I’ll tell you what it means:  Your kid is getting a piss poor, absolutely terrible education at Unitech or any of the other public universities he or she might be attending.   Even if their life depended on it, your kid probably couldn't write a coherent letter against the one you wrote! 

Fortunately, our university students are slowly beginning to realise that the rest of the world passed them by decades ago in quality of education.   While other countries elevated their education standards, PNG lowered its standards.    Unitech students DID have the best brains.  However, those brains deteriorated through mis-use thanks to noncaring parents allowing a noncaring government to let the universities fall all to pieces.  

Unused “best brains” whose potential was never developed due to the poor state of education they were exposed end up being brains that cannot solve problems or attempt to solve problems in ways that create expensive and lasting disasters.   God help Papua New Guinea unless we all stand up and demand the government put their chequebooks where their mouths are and start writing out cheques to fill university rooms with learning resources and much better teachers.