Western E-learning & Teacher In-service project
The Western Province Schools Initiative aims to improve teaching, learning and access to schooling for children across rural and remote Middle and South Fly in Western Province.
Western Province is one of the largest and most inaccessible in Papua New Guinea, with vast flatland river systems abutting mountain ranges in the north and very limited infrastructure and transport options. With villages dotted between rivers and tributaries and a sparse population, accessing quality education is challenging.
By focusing on high-quality education via teacher training and holistic resourcing - the initiative aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning across remote classrooms.
To do so, the project invests in three critical elements:
Teacher professional development - a series of tailored professional development workshops delivered to teachers during school holiday breaks.
Teacher coaching - each school receives a regular visit from an experienced education coach who mentors them throughout the term.
Resources - each teacher receives a suite of educational and technological resources for their classroom, including schoolbooks written specifically for PNG, tablets loaded with resources, solar power for classrooms and televisions to show video learning content.
Balimo Schools
A team of eight coaches visit 36 schools dotted among the river network in the greater Balimo catchment area in Middle Fly, spanning an area of approximately 3,000 square kilometres. Since commencing work with 150 elementary and primary teachers in 2021, coaches have seen a marked development of teaching skills which has led to increased student engagement, attendance and improved outcomes.
Lake Murray
In 2024, KTF completed a scoping trip to Lake Murray for an expansion of the Western E-learning and Teacher In-service Project and found that Lake Murray faced an extended educational crisis. In this remote region, 6 schools are closed due to a shortage of teachers and a lack of resources, and in the schools still open there are 78 teaching staff needing curriculum and 20 schools needing urgent resourcing. With over 2,300 students and only 40 teachers, Lake Murray is a region desperately in need of immediate and continuous education support.
The Western E-learning and Teacher In-service Project seeks to alleviate education barriers in remote communities by providing high-quality holistic resourcing to schools to support student engagement, learning and development. This includes curriculum learning resources, children's books for the PNG context, educational games, teacher planners, tablets, solar TVs and USBs loaded with learning resources.
KTF partners with Bilum Books to provide PNG-appropriate learning curriculums and educational books. Here is an example of a story from a Bilum Book - called Papa and the Snake.
Find more Bilum Book examples here.
Morehead Schools
The success of the ‘pilot’ in the Balimo Schools has led to a replication of the model in the greater Morehead catchment area from 2022. As for Balimo, the Morehead FODE Satellite Centre will act as a base for resourcing and coaching activities across a network of 35 schools.
Patrols
Based out of Balimo Campus, regular e-learning and teacher support patrols deliver teacher training and critical education resources to 15 remote schools in Western Province.
The Western Province E-learning & Teacher In-service project are an initiative of the PNG Sustainable Development Program implemented in partnership with KTF.
