only half the story

A collection that tells only half the story

The fifth occasional paper published by the Education Research Unit of the University of Papua New Guinea is entitled Ihe Story of My Education. As a collection of autobiographical sketches relating to the schooling years of 11 Papua New Guineas, it presents subjective accounts from the student viewpoint of the missionary, colonial and national school systems over the past

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The collection is intended to serve principally as a discussion text in teacher training colleges. It is therefore a pity that the overall impact of its descriptions of formal and informal educational ex-

perience is only mildly evocative, and its contributors’ evaluation of their experience is poor. Few of the writers rise to effective assessment of their education in relation to per sonal, village or national contexts, because few have a broader ex perience in which to place their schooling years. In fact, some of the writers had not finished their terti ary training at the time of writing.

The 11 sketches reveal common problems and common benefits deriving from the Papua New Gui nean educational system; For exam pie, the disorientation of the first days at school and the satisfaction gained in surviving them; the hard

ship incurred by students having to provide their own food and the self reliance this produces; the painful rupture from village and family life occasioned by attendance at distant institutions, which is offset by village admiration for the successful scholar on his return.

In spite of the fact that each of the writers was a successful student, they suffered harsh punishments, ran away from schools, hated their teachers, were hampered by language difficulties, and saw, at the end of the schooling process, that their education was barely begun. It should be added that two important exclusions from the collection con cern the experience of female stu dents and drop-outs. How much more traumatic were their schooling years?

As literature, these sketches add marginally to the existent body of autobiographical writing from Papua New Guinea. Balaika Gonapa’s Surmounting Illness im presses as a harrowing yet dignified account, by a tragically sensitive in dividual, of education in life’s larger school. Only the inclusion of this piece brings to the collection the degree of perspicacity and emo tional impact familiar in the autobiographical writings of Hannet and Kiki, or of the lesser known Bagita, Bosomu and Kadiba.

It is my opinion that the generally bland texture of the collection derives from the way it came into being. The 11 sketches were judged best in a competition run by the Education Research Unit at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Contestants were instructed to cover certain points, judges were asked to assess by certain scales. The out come has been that only half of the published sketches rise above the prerequisite outline to form inte grated statements. Too often the writing falls to the banality of the cur riel um vitae . too rarely the anec dotal aside, the traditional song or the personal philosophy lend their texture. The writers obviously have felt too bound by the extingencies of the essay competition.

The collection might have been edited down by half to free its dynamic sections from the smother ing effect of replicated details.

Nigel Krauth.

The Story Of My Education: Autobiographies

OF SCHOOLING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Edited by S. G. Weeks. Published by ERU, University of Pepua New Guinea. Port Moresby. K2.00|