Problem of Native Education in Papua-

‘Not Even Scratching The Ground’

New Guinea

By R. W. Robson

ASK any knowledgeable man in Papua- New-Guinea, “What is the Adminis tration’s biggest problem here?’’ and he almost certainly will reply, “The edu cation of the natives.”

Australia holds Papua-New Guinea (PNG for short) primarily because the huge 2,000-miles-long island is her main northern barrier against Asia. None theless, the obligation is upon her to help the li million primitive natives in her care to a better standard of life.

Easily said —but think what it im plies. These are Stone Age folk, wrapped in dirt, disease, ignorance and supersti tion. We are asked to make them appre ciate cleanliness, clothes, sanitation, and all mod. cons., including newspapers.

How are we to do it? The uninstructed, of course, will reply that that is simple: just send them to school—catch them young and train them.

Human beings can make no real pro gress until they and their fellow-villagers can read, count and make a written record. In the beginning, someone must instruct them. That someone must know their language. That Is the ABC of it— but it is fundamental.

AMONG the ll million natives of PNG, there are hundreds of different languages I* is quite a simple matter for a Government official, or a devoted missionary, to learn enough of the language of Valley A to give the natives instructions in reading and writ ing. But the Valley A language is of no use in Valley B; and if the devoted missionary acquires a knowledge of the Valley B talk, he can get nowhere with the Valley C community—their tongue again, is completely different.

To introduce even the simplest edu cation on a worth-while scale, we must have method and design, a system of printed records, a syllabus. What lan guage shall we employ? It would be absurd to try to design a system in more than one or two languages. Yet, if there is to be general education, the children of tribes speaking hundreds of langu ages must be instructed. If there is to be native progress, the men of Sepik must be able to talk with the people of the Highlands, or New Britain, or Papua.

In PNG, in October, I became inter ested in this problem, and then fascinated by it. It must be solved—yet there does not seem to be a solution.

I spent hours with the patient William C. Groves, Director of Education. I asked him scores of questions which, to a man of his wide experience of South Pacific native education, must have seemed foolish and piffling. He gave me all the information he could; he even spent a day with me on the Sogeri high lands, behind Moresby, showing me a training-school and how it works.

But although, like Omar, I visited doc tor and sage, and heard great argument, I came out by the same door as in I went. The education system of PNG sincere, scientific and eager for the job; but it is not even scratching the ground which it is supposed to culti vax6.

No one has seen a Papua-New Guinea budget since the war. In the opinion of the Port Moresby-Can oerra panjandrums, that is something inat is not for the common gaze of the Uninstructed. So I do not know what

proportion of the five millions which Australia annually pours into PNG dis appears under the heading of Education.

Whatever it is, it is partly wasted.

There is no discernible education policy.

There can be no general plan governing education until there is complete official agreement concerning the language

which is to be used as the vehicle of education. There seems to be no such agreement.

Mr. Groves’s Department of Education seems to be concerned more with what might be called secondary education—

he careful instruction in organised arracks of small groups of selected oung natives (who are being trained s clerks, medical assistants, village chool-teachers, technicians of various inds) and with the maintenance of a ew technical schools. There are very, ery few village schools maintained by he Administration.

SCATTERED far and wide over the Territory there is a limited number of village schools, maintained by he Christian missions. Practically all he mission stations devote as much of heir activities to teaching village child en as to Christianising the adult natives -which, of course, is as it should be. I id not ascertain the total number of ative children thus under instruction, ut it can be only a very small proportion f all the children.

No one will question the value of the ducational work being done by the mis ions; but I was appalled to learn that lere is no co-ordinating plan or author ,y over this missionary activity. Each lission goes its own way, according to ,s own jealously guarded plan. All, more r less, use the printed word; but some, i this, use a selected regional lan uage; some use Pidgin, adapted in arious ways; and some, simple English.

That is not educating the natives in ae way that should be desired by the dministration.

If there is to be a general improve ient in native standards of life, directed wards the ultimate goal of partial jlf-government, the mass of natives lust be brought to a. stage where they in directly receive and understand any jmmunications the Administration de res to make to them. I could find no fidence that the educational work of the lission bodies is being co-ordinated and laped to this or any other end. It jems to be today, a.s it has been for

half a century, a case of every mission station working for itself, ignoring any over-all plan of native training, and re fusing to think outside its own little district.

THE need for some authority to co ordinate mission activities in the field of native education was recog nised long ago. I remember discussing it with the late Administrator Tom Griffith, about 1934; and he told me that he then was planning a far-reaching con ference with the mission bodies, and that he found the missionaries interested and co-operative. Canberra pinpricks forced him out of office before he achieved any thing in this field, however.

Fifteen years have passed, and the position seems to be unaltered. I was told in Moresby that there is no Native Edu cation Ordinance in existence, which might give the Administration control over mission education activities, but that something may be done soon.

I AM no stranger in the South Pacific Islands: but, no matter where I was in PNG, I found it most difficult to communicate even the simplest idea or wish to these natives. One ordered dishes from the hotel menus by the num bers on the margins; one directed taxi drivers in Pidgin, or not at all. As I cannot speak Pidgin, I found myself con stantly appealing for help.

This is a reproach upon a quarter century of Australian-controlled Adminis tration. But wherein has the Administra tion failed?

I think its failure lies in the inability of the present and past Administrators to grasp the fundamentals of this thing; or if they grasped it in their reluctance to take the ruthless action that is neces sary. The fundamental, of course, is the adoption of a lingua franca —or even two or three common languages—and

then the rigid enforcement through every variety of school of the use of that lan guage. If that had been done when Australia took over New Guinea, over 25 years ago the administrative, indus trial and social conditions in the country would have been vastly different today.

Here, there, everywhere, I asked old Territorians: “If it is necessary to im pose a common language on these natives, what language should it be?’’ Some were for simple English, some for Pidgin, some

for a regional language with wide affilia tions, like Motuan. There were strong arguments for each.

I remembered the late Sir Hubert Murray’s long, consistent advocacy of Motuan, and what he achieved. Even to day there still is no Pidgin in the old Territory of Papua. I recalled, also, that a century ago there wa-s a certain con fusion of tongues in Fiji, and that wise missionaries then practically enforced the

use of the Bau tongue which, today, is the common language of Fiji, I. a wandering layman, am in no way qualified to argue in favour of any lan guage in PNG. I can only assert, with confidence, that there can be no real progress in native education, native wel fare and native government there until this language problem is solved, mHE night before I left Moresby I had 1 the priviledge of sitting on the listening side of a long discussion

and. argument, on this very question*! between two old friends of mine—Major* G. S. Kennedy, and Native Labour Direc tor W. R. Humphries. Kennedy’s West ern Pacific record as a. Solomon Islands? official, and a wartime leader of under cover forces against the Japanese, is well known. Dear old “Dickie” Humphries,B just killed in the Lamington disaster was on the point of retirement after mores than 40 years’ good service in the Papuac and PNG Administrations.

Kennedy believes that the adoption ot( Pidgin, on a reasonably scientific basis, g would solve the language problem. Hum phries was for simple English—although,! as an old Murray man, he still had as strong leaning towards Motuan.

The argument went on for about two hours; and in that time I learned mores about the problem of language, as seem through the eyes of practical and experi enced Administrative officials, than I had) ever known.

Especially did I form a new regard fon< the much-execrated Pidgin. challenged the generally-accepted view/ that one cannot, with Pidgin, express am abstract idea. He insisted that, if ex-; perts would take this Beche-de-Mer stufffi —which is now virtually the linguas. franca of industrial New Guinea, and oh a large section of the PNG Administra-, tion—and build upon it a carefully de- 1 vised vocabulary and extend its grammar and syntax (thus giving it a semblance; of rule and regulation) the language diffi-j culty in PNG would be solved in less; than a decade.

Humphries would not have it that He argued that it would be just as prac-; tical to force simple English upon the; natives, and to give them a good start" in civilisation, as to debauch them cul-J turally by giving them a permanent union with Pidgin. With Pidgin, he said, thei natives’ acquisition of a real education would be greatly retarded.

Kennedy retorted that, whether we like t or not, Pidgin is in PNG to stay. It s gaining new adherents every day. Even he Chimbus (the new labour battalions rom the Highlands) are adopting it. Why lot use it as a short cut to the educa ion of the PNG masses?

He did not urge its recognition as an istablished language—only as- a means to l very desirable end.

I leave the discussion there. It clearly s a matter for the experts. Why does he Administration not bring the experts nto the picture, and decide this question, 0 that the real work of education can iroceed? yro one can fail to be impressed with [M Sogeri—with the coolness and beauty of this educational training-camp in he mountains, the keen enthusiasm of Director “Bill” Groves and School Prin :ipal L. C. Unwin, and the passionate ;agerness to learn which every man of ,he three-score natives displayed.

Here there was a small handful of Euro >ean teachers training a. larger handful >f native students to become teachers of ullage schools. That seems a perfectly nund idea. But there were only two or hree dozen probable native teachers, vhere there should be hundreds under reparation. Groves told me that there ire two other similar training establish nents —one at Keravat, near Rabaul, and me at Dreger, near Lae. The personnel it those places is smaller than at Sogeri. ‘ But —but it’s ridiculous,” I spluttered.

You can’t educate the natives without lative teachers. Why aren’t you turning hem out in hundreds?”

The Director gently reminded me that mu cannot produce native teachers unless mu have European teachers to train the lative teachers. And PNG can get only 1 trickle of trained Europeans. I re nembered, then, the staff-starved con dition of our schools in Australia. Not nuch hope for impressive expansion of he PNG education system while there ire not enough white teachers to go mund down South, in Australia. One muld not blame the Administration for hat.

I wandered off around the station. I bund a lighting system that had broken iown; a water-supply system that, owing ,o lack of parts and know-how, would not ;upply water; a fine lot of carpentry ools, but no timber to use them on; a iemand for timber, wherewith to make he station more comfortable and secure, mt no sawmill within reach.

The PNG Administration should centre he world “Frustration” in its coat-of irms.