Papua New Guinea teacher training adds to equality campaign
Preference: Families in Papua New Guinea favour sending boys to school.
The United Church in Papua New Guinea's Gaulim teacher training college is helping women gain equality by emphasising the importance of giving equal encouragement to girls and boys in schools.
Girls and women hold low social status in Papua New Guinea and more decision-making roles go to men than to women. The nation's parliament has only one woman member.
Lecturers at Gaulim point out that this is changing and there is encouragement to treat women and men equally and to give leadership roles in society to both.
They encourage trainee teachers like Dominic Nuke from the Eastern Highlands to give equal responsibilities to their pupils. "Next year when I go out and teach I will respect girls and boys," he said. "We are equal so we can work together."
Trainee teacher Vavine Kila from Central Province said: "Most parents will
hold back the girls from school. We can teach them these days that men and
women can make decisions."