K1 Million for Marking Grade 12 Examination Papers: Consultants, NDoE and MSU To Give Back To PNG Government Factual Stats

Papua New Guinea’s National Department of Education (NDoE) and Measurement Service Unit (MSU) should look forward to this month, just like Grade 12 teachers and principals would at this time. Every school representative gathers in the capital city for marking Grade 12 examination papers.

Coming to Port Moresby is icing on the cake for many teachers. They have ‘slaved’ away in classrooms during the years preparing students for further education. What better way to start an early Christmas holiday with the visit to nation’s capital, a nice room in one of the expensive hotels and some spare coins from NDoE. Well deserved!

Principals and school Board of Governors are anticipating tip-off from select markers on how well their students are performing.

Take a look at how much one province spent on marking of Grade 10 exam papers. Morobe Provincial Government allocated K20 000 for Grade 10 marking which was exhausted before completion of marking. Apparently, marking resumed after two days.

A senior marker said (see EMTV NEWS report) K30 000 was needed to complete the marking without any hindrance. He cautioned that due to additional papers from newly introduced subjects mean increase funding - a total funding to a tune of K50 000 was sufficient to cover all costs. 

Obviously, marking of Grade 12 papers would require more money. So, how much would this cost the government? No one knows how much NDoE is planning to spend on this exercise to this date.

NDoE will bring teachers to Port Moresby (how many teachers are involved in the marking?); NDoE must provide accommodation (where are markers living and what is the rate per night?); NDoE must feed the markers (how much does it cost per meal?); Logistics have to be provided (who provides it and how much does it cost?)

One province put the estimated at K50 000. Think 22 provinces, it could probably cost PNG government more than K1 000 000.

Is there anything ELSE the department, including its subsidiaries, can get out from the teachers? The answer is YES. Instead of depending on data given to the department (or use consultants to go out to each province to collect data),  NDoE could use this opportunity to gather vital data.

By doing this, NDoE can use this data to avoid discrepancies by comparing them against the data from schools. This idea could also save time, effort, resource and money. 

Why not collect much needed data whilst representatives from every secondary and national high school in the country is in Port Moresby? This is a good time to confirm the number of students given to NDoE. It is the right time to find out if 21 430 Grade 12 students are actually doing the exams.

I showed irregularities in data presented by the education secretary where shocking discrepancies were highlighted when education officials accept data from schools. They should have their own research done - collated and confirmed - before advising government on development agendas in education.

5 data NDoE can CONFIRM from teachers at marking venue:

1) Total number students in each school
2) Total number of teachers in each school
3) Total Number of Students Intake from primary schools doing Grade 9 in 2015
4) Total Number of Grade 12 students passing out
5) Number of students sitting for each subject

Education consultants,  NDoE and MSU can collect a whole lot of other data it needs when teachers and principals are in Port Moresby. Give to the government what the it can use to better plan for the future.

http://www.unesco.org/education

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PNG NDoE will work on a new 10-year plan, the National Education Plan 2015 - 2024. This will be the topic of my next post.