S. Pacific’s Number One Problem —

Native Education System

R ECENT events suggest that the subject of native education has been—quite properly—given Number One priority among the problems facing the Pacific Islands adminis- [rations.

It is not one of the commoner education “problems,” with which most Western Governments are beset. It is the question of how best to provide the indigenous folk of the South Pacific Islands and Micro tiesia with sufficient literacy to assist them, first, to make contact with Western “civilisation” without social disaster and, second, to accept responsibility for a sufficient amount of self-government to allow them to line up with other independent

:ountries.

To the uninstructed, this may seem a simple matter of introducing schools and school-teachers. It is immensely more difficult than that.

It involves the problem of finding some common medium of language —some Lingua Franca —through which these people can be started 3n the road to literacy.

It is a general problem in Polytiesia and Micronesia; but in those areas, for more than one reason, it is on its way to solution. It is an acute problem in Melanesia; and, also for reasons peculiar to the area, it is exceedingly complex, and no solution is in sight.

Put it in terms of rough statistics.

In the South Pacific Islands and Micronesia, there are about 2 million natives—about 1,600,000 in Mela nesia, and 400,000 in Polynesia and Micronesia. (Ethnologically, the Fijians (125,000) are classed as Melanesians; but as they are now a one-language people of superior in telligence, they are—for purposes of this brief survey—included with the Polynesians).

P°lY nes i an and Micronesian countries made very early con tact with Europeans—and suffered in the usual way. At the turn of the century all the Polynesian races were greatly reduced in numbers, and seemed doomed. Since then, thanks to Christian Mission organisation and sympathetic administration, all have rallied, and their future as nations seems assured. In making that rally, each of these nations (Samoans, Ton gans, Ellice Islanders, Gilbertese, Tahitians, Cook Islanders, Fijians, and Micronesians) has (a) adjusted itself to “Europeanisation” and (b) adopted a national language. (In some groups, such as Fiji, there were several languages, or dialects, and one of these was adopted for official and common use).

If we accept Micronesia (Caro lines, Marshalls and Marianas) as one nation—and it is likely to be some that, under American tutelage —we may in fact say that, in the

h and h M?cronel" a , ated by different languages, but united in so many ways that a South Pacific Federation is by no means an idle dream. Fijians, Samoans, Tahitians, Tongans, for example, have a sharp national consciousness and pride: their natural course will be develop ment as young nations, with a strong tendency to alliance with their cousins in adjoining archipelagoes, So far as the future of Polynesia- Micronesia is concerned, that new, co-ordinating authority, the South Pacific Commission, should be able to visualise its task with clarity, and bring to it a good deal of enthusiasm, T>UT when we turn to Melanesia, -C* the difficulties are appalling, in number and in character. More than three quarters of the Pacific Islanders live west and southwest of Polynesia- Micronesia. The great majority of them are racially backward, primi tive folk. The history of their con tact with Europeans is not compar able with that of the Polynesians, and it is much more recent, Many factors complicate the problem of raising the standard of life among these 1,600,000 Mela nesians; but the outstanding con sideration which now drives us on to dealing with this matter, and surrounds it with urgency, is the rapidity with which Communism is sweeping across Asia. If Western civilisation is to survive in Australia and the South Pacific, we must hold Melanesia which, otherwise, will pro vide Asia with a chain of stepping

stones to Australia. An enlightened, pro-Western Melanesia would be of greater help to us than the present Melanesia, generally illiterate, politically uninstructed, and primi tive.

But how are we going to instruct and enlighten the countless hundreds of thousands of natives in Papua, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons and New Hebrides, until we have found a language, or even a group of languages, through which to reach them?

In Melanesia, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of different lan guages. Each island, each valley system, sometimes each valley, has its own distinct tongue. Mostly, these are intelligent people; but they are so deeply sunk in ignorance and superstition that they are literally unapproachable.

Until quite recently, the problems of Islands education were left almost entirely to the missionaries. On the whole, they had remarkable success in Polynesia in bringing one language into use for instruction in each group. But nothing like com parable success has attended the Missions’ 70 years of devoted work in Melanesia.

All the churches have a fine re cord of sacrificial service, of ad herents gained and children educated in Melanesia; but the sum of their achievements, seen against the back ground of H million natives, in those vast archipelagoes, is not im pressive. What the missionaries have done, however, is to make available a mass of priceless information to guide the swarms of experts and planners, now seeking a solution to the Number One problem—how to reach the Melanesian masses, so as to enlighten and instruct them, on a large scale.

EVERY Mission body has sought —almost desperately at times— for a Lingua Franca; but none has had more than a local success. There is a very long story here—often filled with the clamour of argument and dispute—but it all resolves itself into these undisputed points; I—No native language has been found that is acceptable to Melanesia generally, or to any large section of it. 2 No general advance in native education, on a wide front, is possible until some medium of communica tion, suitable for general adoption, is found. 3—Although the average expert turns up his academic nose at Pidgin English, there surely is a pointer in the facts that this queer lingo can be picked up almost overnight by both natives

and Europeans; that it is now the industrial Lingua Franca of New Guinea, Solomons and New Hebrides; and that, for want of something better, it is now used by some Administrations and some Missions to communicate with the natives.

THERE is mounting evidence of official concern over the present failure to solve this problem of native education, and of the inability of those primarily concerned to even agree upon a modus operandi in seeking a solution.

In Papua-New Guinea's Legislative Council, the other day, there was a sharp exchange between Father Dwyer, a respected leader of the Catholic Mission’s educational activities, and Mr. W. C. Groves, Director of Education in the Territory, and probably now the most experienced and knowledgeable man in the sphere of native education in Melanesia. A report of the argument showed two things very clearly —First, that there is likelihood of friction between Missions and Administration as the latter puts urgency and drive behind its efforts to find a solution to the problem; and. second, that there is little to be

gained by the Administration pour ing huge public money into schemes; of native education until a solution is found to the double problem of a common language, and a supply of trained teacher's.

Experts’ reports on this vexed problem are coming in from many directions. Each contributes some thing valuable to the discussion. The best summary available is a most excellent compilation, The Use of Vernacular Languages as Vehicles of Instruction, prepared for the South Pacific Commission By Mr, G. J.

Flatten, one of Mr. Groves’s most competent lieutenants in Papua, The Social Development Section of the SPC, under Mr. H. E. Maude, wisely is giving this problem first priority. But, unless the various Ad ministrations and mission-education bodies affected are forced to co ordinate their efforts and their methods, the Commission will achieve little beyond assembling a mass of valuable data to show the urgency and the difficulty and the apparent insolubility of the problem, Has the Commission the power and the driving force required to im pose united action upon the Mela nesian Governments and Churches interested in this vital thing?