Government or Mission

Education for Papua ?

Letter to the Editor AMONG the many changes wrought in Papua by the impact of war is the substitution of the military govern ment of ANGAU for that of the civil administration, many of whose members remained to serve in ANGAU.

At the outset, ANGAU was fully occu pied in organising the natives to render maximum assistance to the Allied Ser vices in their tasks, a job which all con cede was done magnificently: but, lately, ANGAU has been able to devote more of its energies to administration and the rehabilitation of the natives, with a very full sense of the debt owed to the Papuan by all Australians.

Those (and their names are legion) whose criticism is solely destructive, may scoff at this: but everyone privileged to see the directives issued by HQ. ANGAU. know how conscious the staff members are of 'their duty to do all they can to improve the Papuan’s chance to survive.

ANGAU has at least as great a feeling for the natives’ welfare as had the civil administration, but it enjoys several decided advantages in implementing this, for it can obtain adequate staff, is un hampered by financial considerations, and has the services of technical experts of the various Army services at its disposal.

ANGAU is therfore building up as strong and complete an administrative machine as possible so that, when civil government is re-instituted, there shall be no slackening of rehabilitation and Aus tralia will find it hard to repudiate or reduce anv of the administrative activi ties. In all the chief departments of gov ernment this has been done, with par ticular emphasis on medical services, but so far one major need has not been met.

This is Native Education.

In pre-war times, Native Education was not a Governmental service, the Adminis tration limiting its efforts to subsidising the various mission bodies who undertook this work. It is hard to criticise the early Administrations for this state of affairs, since the desire of the missions to undertake education undoubtedly eased the burden on the miserly stipend doled out bv Canberra for Papua, and so a youthful, struggling land had to accept everv form of assistance offered. Our gratitude is due the mission bodies for their early efforts.

But now the time has come to re examine this question without prejudice; and in fact, a body of anthropologists and others have been asked to investigate Native Education and make an advisory report.

Whatever principles for Native Educa tion mav be recommended by these experts, it is of paramount importance that the teaching of such principles be carried out bv a Civil Education Board and not by the missions, who in some instances have failed lamentably to edu cate the natives. In one particular dis trict no native of Standard V could be obtained for the kind of clerical Dost now being onened to natives by ANGAU. The indisoutable fact is that, with the mis sions. religion comes first, as is only to be expected, and other matters after wards. so that to allow them to handle any affairs other than their own spe cialty. religion, is to secure second-class facilities, at the best.

To secure the best results and maxi mum efficiency, teaching, and not merely examinations, must be standardised throughout the country, so that teachers trained in a central college can be posted

to any part of. the land and find the pupils on the same curriculum. There can be no doubt that State education, so successful in other countries, can be equally so in Papua, and the pupils, doing nothing but learning during the school hours, Will assimilate far more than in schools where much of their time is spent on religious subjects.

Under the present system of mission education, children of the same genera tion may vary vastly in their knowledge as between the different areas served by each mission, in the proportion that each mission leavens its primary religious teaching with secular subjects. Another point not to be overlooked is the more complete enrolment which would take place in State schools, due to the superior prestige and authority of the Administra tion.

Many people regard the native solely as a “coon,” and fail to realise his intellec tual capacity and technical capabilities in

manual and vocational subjects. At pre sent. any technical training a native may receive is usually given so that he can apply it to the service of a European, whereas the goal should be to teach them primarily things which they can apply to improve their own way of life.

It seems imperative that missions shall no longer handle secular education; for, whatever they may profess, in practice they are more concerned to save a native’s soul by making him word-perfect in religious ceremonial than to raise his standards of life.

I am, etc., Papua, RHF.

June, 1944.

Lieutenant John W. Cox, DCM. MM and Bar, Mentioned in Despatches, is Camp Commandant of a large ANGAU camp in New Guinea. He was formerly in the Public Works Department of the New Guinea Administration.