The Ministry for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology is responsible for the effective development of an education system that will enable the nation of Papua New Guinea’s future development. Other government education agencies include the Commission for Higher Education, which is responsible for coordinating and delivering higher education effectively within the allocated resources available. In terms of accreditation, foreign students must have credit passes at form IV level in English, mathematics and sciences in order to be considered for acceptance to the higher education institutions in the country.
Education policy emphasises co-ordinated planning and implementation; efficient teacher deployment; and community involvement, towards the longer-term goals of compulsory education to Grade 8 and universal education to Grade 10.
In February 2012 the government began paying tuition fees for all students who enrol in schools from pre-school to Grade 10. In the same year the government undertook to subsidise the education of students attending Grades 11 and 12, whether in school or vocational centres or through open and distance learning.
Papua New Guinea qualified for the World Bank’s ‘Fast Track Initiative’ – known since September 2011 as the Global Partnership for Education – which is aimed at meeting the education Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All goal that all children complete a full cycle of primary education by 2015. Since 2002, under the initiative developing countries have committed to design and implement sound education plans and development partners commit to align and harmonise additional support around these plans.
Papua New Guinea is one of the 35 countries implementing the UNESCO Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (2006–15), a strategic framework through which national governments, civil society, and bilateral and multilateral agencies collaborate to accelerate literacy programmes and support achievement of a 50% improvement in national adult literacy rates by 2015.
