Face Formidable Task

They Lack Basic

Education:

TNG Students at Suva Medical School Face Formidable Task

The second Largest racial group amongst students enrolled this year at the Central Medical School, Suva, is the 25 young men from the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

IIJIAN students top the numbers poll with 48; in addition there are 19 Fiji-Indians; 11 from estern Samoa; 12 from the Cook lands; one from Nauru; three 3m the New Hebrides; 12 from stern Samoa; four from Tonga; ree from the US Trust Territory; jht from the BSIP; one from Ibert and Ellice Islands, and three >m Niue.

Df the thirteen P-NG lads who re sent to the CMS this year, 10 J in a preliminary class of 12 uch is being intensively coached English and mathematics, with ne preliminary science, in the pe that by 1956 some of the dents will be fit to begin medical dies.

"he following observations and tuctions with regard to the P-NG dents are my own and not those the staff of the School in Suva, ey are based on some knowledge the Territory, and on courteous

but sometimes non-committal answers to inquiries I made a jew weeks ago at the school in Suva.

No one at the school appears to know on what basis P-NG chooses its CMS students, but my own guess is that they simply choose the best available in the hope that Suva will be able to perform a miracle that so far P-NG has been unable to perform for itself. The fact that 10 out of this year’s 13 are now studying English explains clearer than a volume of words, the in adequacies of the P-NG native education system to fit students for advanced studies. The other three who were enrolled at Suva this year and are not in the preliminary class are probably taking the less exacting courses, such as sanitation, public health, Qtc.

The principal of the school—who is far more optimistic than I—thinks that by the end of 1955 six or eight of these boys now in the preliminary

class may be able t 0 begin First Year of the Assistant Medical Practitioner course. But he admits battle. How much French do^you know?” he asked me. I admitted to n ° n ? ore »„ t T h^ n , 1 had learned at f ch °A W how would you like to study medicine at a French Uni versity? That is about what it amounts to for these P-NG lads.”

It is probably even worse than that. Our education teaches us to hne up facts and come to a con other words, to reason, With NG education m its present 4 a S e > most of these native people simply regard education as a series of Euclid’s self-evident facts-to be swallowed whole, and as an end in

itself. In other words, they have learned parrot-fashion and not by reasoning. with little preliminary warning, 37 Micronesian students from the US Trust Territory suddenly arrived at the CMS; in 1952, 13 more came. Few of these had adequate English and, like the NG lads, had to go through the preliminary classes But "in the last graduating class the two top students of the year were Micronesians. They are de scribed as “not brilliant” in the full sense of that word, but so keen and so determined to apply the knowledge that they had, that they overcame all obstacles.

Students entering the school from Fiji are required to have passed the Senior Cambridge examination— which is roughly equivalent to Aus tralian Leaving Certificate standard.

How many students in Papua-New Guinea could even attempt such an examination? Judging by the fact that 10 of this year’s batch of P-NG students had to go to the prelim inary class at the CMS I think I am pretty safe in saying nil.

THREE are about 2 million natives in Papua and New Guinea, all in need of the kind of help pro vided by AMP’s. Graduating NG students from the CMS, for many years to come, will therefore be a

tiny drop in the vast stream of P-NG requirements. Is it of any value, then, that this token number of young men should go to Suva and struggle through the course?

In spite of the uphill fight that they have in order to graduate, and in spite of the inadequate way in which they have been prepared for the experiment in their own Terri tory, I still think it is.

These present students can make

little impact on the solution medical difficulties in their o< country, but the people who run t School in Suva are as much terested in turning out success; human beings as they are in tui ing out successful professional mi and in this way the P-NG men v develop a pride in themselves, their school and in their race, wh. is hard for them to do in th own country where race prejudice

[reater than it ever has been in Iji. They rub shoulders with other •acific Islanders, more socially and olitically advanced than they, but i an atmosphere where the tnphasis is on self-discipline and jrvice. They are guided by men ho not only are medical men and icturers, but who believe in the chool and bring to the solution of s problems, full missionary zeal.

The lads, no matter from whence ley come or how few have been leir advantages, are welcomed into le student body and made to feel part of it. Their material com rts are well taken care of in the sw school on the heights above iva where they live, attend their ;tures and laboratory work, and joy adequate recreation. [n the last three years of their arse, half their time is spent in actical work in the local hospitals. rhere is only one drawback to IS training for P-NG boys that I a see—and this applies also to ;ir own fellows from the other acationally backward Territories New Hebrides and BSlP—and it is the long years that the irse takes. The AMP course has v been extended to five years— -1 added to this the lads with in quate education have at least one .r, sometimes more, in the pre inary class. Six years is a long le in the lives of these young pie. *robably the best contribution *G can make to the success of CMS scheme is to get on with business of plain sensible educa i of its masses of children, and eave all the fancy window-dress for UNO for a couple of genera ls hence. The difficulties are nendous— everyone is prepared to nt that. However, the fact re ns that after over 70 years in iua and over 40 years in New nea, the Australian administra obviously cannot produce one uan or New Guinea student who capable of passing a Leaving tificate examination. * * * > I have said, no one in Suva could—or woald—tell me how P-NG chose its CMS students I did see some of the general pledge papers that the School P-NG contenders for CMS Durs. lere were about two dozen tions and many of the answers 1 hilarious—or pitiful, depend upon the way you looked at it. any of the questions were left iswered but many who did at )t to answer proved only that, he average P-NG youth, the a outside his village is still a and book. I forget most of the tions, and their answers but i are some I do remember:

• T r° tJ i e que . s f tio ? ‘‘9 n which river is London situated? one student answered “Nile.” Another said it was “on the land.” (Which I thought showed good commonsense, anyhow; I hope this StUdent got in ) o ° ne student said the present ? rlme Minister of the United King- Eli^hefh^ 6 " 216 ’’ Another - Queen Elizabeth.

One answer to “What is the laree Pacific Island, one half of which is administered by Holland and the by AUStralia '” was h the letters UNO

“United "Nations 6 Ohto”

uniiea nations Ohio, was one

answer. Another candidate thought it meant “United Nations October.”

However, in case Fiji should get too puffed up about its scholastic attainments by comparison, I was given these three genuine howlers which turned up in school examina tions (nothing to do with the Central Medical School) last year: Question: Name the two people who climbed Mt. Everest. Answer: Queen Elizabeth and Ratu Mara.

Question: Who is the present Commissioner of Police in Fiji?

Answer: Black Maria.

Question; Name two ways in which flowers are pollinated.

Answer: Butterflies and INCEST.

The capital letters are mine.