Big changes proposed in P-NG

transport and education

From JOHN RYAN, in Port Moresby Consultants to the United Nations Development Programme are recommending big changes for Papua-New Guinea’s air, road and sea transport. And a special committee of inquiry is recom mending a national teaching service for the territory.

These are the two main develop ments to come out of the November sitting of P-NG’s House of Assembly, in what otherwise was a quiet, even dull, meeting.

Only other things of significance to come out of the session were the announcement by the Admin istration that it would take up, for $25 million, a 20 per cent, share in the Bougainville copper project, with shares at par (See Business, p. 115), and the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Gazelle troubles.

The meeting ended on a sour note: after passing everything the Govern ment asked for, the elected members on the last day refused passage for a bill designed to let the Develop ment Bank buy and sell land, so as to establish firm title as collateral for a loan.

The elected MHA’s were annoyed that the Government side brought the bill at the last moment and asked for it to be passed immedia tely. They put their foot down, and they’ll talk about it again in Feb ruary.

The UNDP transport survey (re commended by the 1963 World Bank experts) cost nearly $600,000 and clearly tells the government that it should • establish without delay a Depart ment of Transportation to draw together the several existing government agencies dealing with all forms of transport; • set a timetable for transfer to this department full control over territory aviation, now held by the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation; • look at the idea of abandoning the two-airline policy (equal access) in Papua-New Guinea, and establishing a single airline in which the territory Administra tion would have a controlling interest; • give high priority to highways and rural roads; • considerably strengthen, expand and reorganise the Administration Department of Public Works so that, eventually, it can . . . take over from the Commonwealth Department of Public Works and

become the single planning and constructing authority; • establish a corporation (with Administration equity) to take part in coastal shipping and pos sibly in the Australia territory shipping trade; • and a more detailed master plan for port and harbour facilities, including a new main wharf site (Walter Bay, off Ela Beach) for Port Moresby; • take a second look at the preli minary plan to upgrade Port Moresby’s Jackson’s Airport for larger aircraft, and perhaps look at Lae or Madang as a second major jetport.

The UNDP secondary recom mendations include higher duties on fuels and oils to help finance general transport improvements, cement plants in the near future at Port Moresby, Rabaul and Kundiawa (for the Highlands) each with a capacity of 30,000 tons a year, long-term town planning, staggered working hours to reduce traffic and parking problems in Port Moresby, higher port charges for shipping, and an Administration takeover from the Commonwealth of marine naviga tional aids.

A hard look at airline services is strongly recommended, with strong attempts to reduce passenger fares with, among other things, selective night flying.

The UNDP report, endorsing the Administration’s general transport programme (to cost $150,000,000 by June, 1973), has re-emphasised many of the points made by the 1963 World Bank Mission, and by more recent UN Visiting Missions.

Some of the UNDP recommenda tions are clearly aimed at loosening Canberra’s hold on transport plan ning at Konedobu ... to prevent, as one UNDP expert put it recently, “this utterly fantastic situation where Konedobu virtually has to ask Can berra’s permission before it can change the angle on the roof of an outstation toilet”.

Parliament endorsed the UNDP report without fuss, and it’s now under official examination in Kone (Continued on p. 132)

dobu and Canberra.

“An historic document’’ is how the House of Assembly almost un animously received the report of the Advisory Committee on Education— Mr. W. J. Weeden (Canberra), Mr.

C. E. Beeby (Wellington) and Mr.

Gabriel Gris.

The recommendations: that Papua- New Guinea’s Administration and Missionary teaching systems (240,000 students this year) be drawn together into a unified, national teaching service, with a Territory Education Board with advisory-executive authority, a Teaching Service Com mission responsible for employing teachers and District Education Boards.

The new, overall education system will be known as the Territory Education Service.

Christian missions have always borne the brunt of educating New Guinea’s children —at this moment, two-thirds of all children at school are in missionary classrooms. For the past four years, many native teachers in the missions, particularly Roman Catholics, have been demanding the same pay as government teachers,

and the Weeden Committee has come up with an educational answer to what has become an increasingly serious political problem of salaries.

It recommends school and teacher classifications, and forces the onus on the missions to bring their schools up to a standard where its teachers will be recognised and paid the same wage as a government teacher in a comparable government school.

Missionary teachers with equal qualifications and teaching in mis sionary schools of approved standard and enrolment will get the same pay as government teachers. Mission teachers with missions unable or unwilling to meet the standards, will be paid two-thirds of the govern ment wage—provided in all cases, that the missionary teacher meets educational and teacher-experience standards set by the new teaching service.

It's now up to the missionary authorities and schools to decide just how wide they’ll throw open the missionary classrooms to children of all faiths, and how much they’ll spend on their schools to reach government standards. Missionary teachers wanting to meet govern ment qualifications for higher wages will no doubt leave the missionary schools which do not improve quickly enough.