The first week of August was National Book Week in Papua New Guinea.
This year, it was launched from Chimbu Province in the Papua New Guinea highlands.
During the launch, Education Department's First Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Standards, Godfrey Yerua spoke to about 3,000 people, mostly students and teachers about the importance of reading.
Presenter: Pearson Vetuna
Speaker: Godfrey Yerua, First Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Standards in PNG's Education department.
This year, it was launched from Chimbu Province in the Papua New Guinea highlands.
During the launch, Education Department's First Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Standards, Godfrey Yerua spoke to about 3,000 people, mostly students and teachers about the importance of reading.
Presenter: Pearson Vetuna
Speaker: Godfrey Yerua, First Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Standards in PNG's Education department.
YERUA: It is very, very important in terms of that any book contains a lot of very, very valuable information, which we all get. Educated people all their knowledge and skills and values that they have all comes from books, so that's where we want to encourage the public that they can go to a provincial library, or to school library, or where there are libraries they can go and get books and read books containing valuable information.
VETUNA: What was the theme for this year's National Book Week?
YERUA: The slogan for this year is "Books for Lifelong Learning" and we translate this into Tok Pisin it's "Buk i givim save nau na taim bihain" and if we translate this into Motu "Buka amo diba abia hanai hanai" that's the theme for this year's book week, "Books for Lifelong Learning". So you read books, you improve your life, you improve the things that you do. Books contain information that are very useful for everybody.
VETUNA: Who is it aimed at, is it just for schools or the general public?
YERUA: It's everybody, everybody. School children as well as adults. School children they learn in school, but adults, the working class or the people that are just in the subsistence farmers who are out there. We want to encourage them, please get hold of a book and read. You will pick up some new information. This will help you. So as the saying goes, information is power. So if you read books and you get additional information, new information, this will help you to improve.
VETUNA: How easy is it to get Papua New Guineans to read because you and I know reading is not really part of the culture of Papua New Guinea?
YERUA: You are dead right. It's very hard, even those who have been to school and who are working. Many of them find it difficult to read, because it's an environment where they were brought up years ago that reading was not part of everyday life. It is difficult to get people to read and that's why we have Book Week every year is to get this very important message to everybody so that we can encourage everybody to read books. So this year if you read three books, well next year you try and read four or five books and then by doing this we have to change the habit of not reading to the habit of reading.
VETUNA: Of course to encourage people to read, we need libraries and such. Of course there are libraries throughout the provinces in Papua New Guinea, that's the case, isn't it?
YERUA: No, no, no, not all provinces do have the provincial libraries, but the office of Library and Archives, they're working with the provinces now and encouraging them to open up libraries, provincial libraries and put in books in there, so that people in the province they can come and access this facility to encourage people to come and borrow books and read. So that's what the Office of Library and Archives is doing, so they're doing this. And for the Department of Education, we are working with the schools for the schools to have all schools must have their school libraries then also each classroom must have a small library for the students in the classroom.
VETUNA: Yes, and I understand you're getting some help to help them with this?
YERUA: Yes, with the class of libraries, we are getting help from the World Bank. So it's a three year project, 2011, 2012, and 2013, so that's what we are doing now and then also we're doing something on the elementary sector. You see early grade reading assessments, so that's the project we're doing with the World Bank as well. So it's to build up the reading level of the little children coming in to the elementary level, so we're trying to do whatever we can to encourage our young people to create a culture where they can read.
VETUNA: What was the theme for this year's National Book Week?
YERUA: The slogan for this year is "Books for Lifelong Learning" and we translate this into Tok Pisin it's "Buk i givim save nau na taim bihain" and if we translate this into Motu "Buka amo diba abia hanai hanai" that's the theme for this year's book week, "Books for Lifelong Learning". So you read books, you improve your life, you improve the things that you do. Books contain information that are very useful for everybody.
VETUNA: Who is it aimed at, is it just for schools or the general public?
YERUA: It's everybody, everybody. School children as well as adults. School children they learn in school, but adults, the working class or the people that are just in the subsistence farmers who are out there. We want to encourage them, please get hold of a book and read. You will pick up some new information. This will help you. So as the saying goes, information is power. So if you read books and you get additional information, new information, this will help you to improve.
VETUNA: How easy is it to get Papua New Guineans to read because you and I know reading is not really part of the culture of Papua New Guinea?
YERUA: You are dead right. It's very hard, even those who have been to school and who are working. Many of them find it difficult to read, because it's an environment where they were brought up years ago that reading was not part of everyday life. It is difficult to get people to read and that's why we have Book Week every year is to get this very important message to everybody so that we can encourage everybody to read books. So this year if you read three books, well next year you try and read four or five books and then by doing this we have to change the habit of not reading to the habit of reading.
VETUNA: Of course to encourage people to read, we need libraries and such. Of course there are libraries throughout the provinces in Papua New Guinea, that's the case, isn't it?
YERUA: No, no, no, not all provinces do have the provincial libraries, but the office of Library and Archives, they're working with the provinces now and encouraging them to open up libraries, provincial libraries and put in books in there, so that people in the province they can come and access this facility to encourage people to come and borrow books and read. So that's what the Office of Library and Archives is doing, so they're doing this. And for the Department of Education, we are working with the schools for the schools to have all schools must have their school libraries then also each classroom must have a small library for the students in the classroom.
VETUNA: Yes, and I understand you're getting some help to help them with this?
YERUA: Yes, with the class of libraries, we are getting help from the World Bank. So it's a three year project, 2011, 2012, and 2013, so that's what we are doing now and then also we're doing something on the elementary sector. You see early grade reading assessments, so that's the project we're doing with the World Bank as well. So it's to build up the reading level of the little children coming in to the elementary level, so we're trying to do whatever we can to encourage our young people to create a culture where they can read.
Radio Australia - Pacific Beat
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