The Place of Pidgin

[?]er to the Editor: The Place of Pidgin in NG Education

CFERENCE is made to an article which appeared on page 18 of the March, 1955, fic Islands Monthly, under the ling, “Official Move To Use [in”. )ur attention is drawn to a her of inaccurate and mislead statements which are likely to rise to a grave misinterpreta of the intention of the Educa- Advisory Board and the mittee on Languages referred n the article, and do a grave stice to the members of the d and Committee, who are all

msible and experienced people.

agraph 3 of the article which reads, Advisory Committee on Languages, nted by the Education Advisory I . .” should read, “The Committee languages, appointed by the Ad trator on the recommendation of the ition Advisory Board . agraph 6 incorrectly states, “The mendation of the Committee includes ollowing: jin English should be taught in all is in the Dual Territory where lish is not known. For this purpose jin English must be adopted officially, ,ts abolition is impractical.” actual recommendations of the littee on Languages were embodied ie following Resolution of the in al meetypg held at Port Moresby on ary 14, 1955: Fhat this Committee supports the ecommendation made in the paper m Pidgin prepared by the Depart nent of Education and strongly ecommends the official recognition of Mdgin; and hat a standard orthography for ’idgin based on the revised Schebesta Mctionary be adopted and that a egional form of Pidgin be selected ,nd adopted as the standard form or the Territory.” support and extension of the recom itions of the Committee on ages, the Education Advisory Board, third meeting held at Port Moresby bruary 81, 1955, adopted the follow esolution:— at the Board recognises that Pidgin es a useful purpose as a lingua ca and a means of disseminating rmation in areas in which English 5 yet little known and no vernacular iia franca is available. Its spread been largely spontaneous, and its ition, even if desirable, would be e impracticable. recommend that a linguistically d orthography for Pidgin should be ially adopted by the Administration that a standard grammar and onary, using this orthography, ild be published. consider that the use of Pidgin as edium of instruction in schools may ibly be sanctioned in locations in h it is in general use either as a titute-vernacular or as a lingua ca; and to this end we recommend primers, readers and textbooks be ared and printed in the officially (ted orthography, consider it undesirable that Pidgin

should be taught as a second language in schools located in areas in which it is not in general use.

“We emphasise that we regard the teaching of English as an educa tional objective of the highest im portance. Literacy either in a ver nacular or in Pidgin should be regarded as a preliminary to, and not as a substitute for, literacy in English.”

In neither the Resolution of the Com mittee on Languages nor the Resolution of the Education Advisory Board, is there any sugegstion that “Pidgin English should be taught in all areas in the Dual Territory where English is not known” as categorically stated in the Pacific Islands Monthly article.

There is no reference in the Pacific Islands Monthly article to that section of the Education Advisory Board’s Resolution which states that “it is considered un desirable that Pidgin should be taught as a second language in schools located in areas in which it is not in general use.”

The source of the information on which the Pacific Islands Monthly article appears to be based was certainly not an official one; but it is clear that, whatever the source, the actual material as published in the PIM represents what I regard as a gross misrepresentation of the true position.

As the PIM itself has frequently pointed out, the language problem in Papua and New Guinea is one of a particularly complex nature and necessarily has very important bearing upon Native education: it is a problem to which a number o f specially-qualified and experienced persons in the Territory (including the members of the special Advisory Committee on Languages and those of the Education Advisory Board) are giving close and expert consideration.

Such mis-statement of the nosition as that represented by the PIM article referred to, does

nothing to help towards a solution of the problem, but merely accentuates it.

I am, etc,

W. C. Groves,

Director of Education Port Moresby, April 26, 1955

Editorial Note

We are pleased to print Mr.

Groves’ letter which sets PIM right on a number of official points. We evidently confused the Advisory Committee on Languages (which met on February 14) and the Education Advisory Board (which met on February 21). It was the Education Advisory Board (not the Committee on Languages) which resolved that “The Board recognises that Pidgin serves a useful purpose as a lingua franca and a means of disseminating information in areas in which English is as yet little known and no vernacular lingua franca is available. . . .” And, in an excess of editorial zeal, the whole of the above which is printed in italics was compressed into “not known.”

However, the fact remains that both the Committee on Languages and the Education Advisory Board are prepared to grant that Pidgin has a useful place in New Guinea society and should not. as some other expert bodies have urged, be scrapped overnight as a “slave language” or for some other peculiar reason. And that was the point PIM was trying to make.

The marriage of Miss Tepaiti, of Rurutu. Cook Is., to Mr. Karl Karlsen, of Norway, took place in the Avarua LMS church in Rarotonga on February 12.