Current Directions and Future Challenges

Education in Papua and New Guinea, 1873–1945.

Wedgwood Camilla H. “Education in the Pacific Islands: A Selective Bibliography” (South Pacific Technical Paper No. 99, Noumea, New Caledonia, 1956). Particularly useful in its listings of official documents.

Annual Report on British New Guinea 1890 to 1907.

Papua, Annual Report 1907 to 1922.

Territory of Papua, Annual Report 1923 to 1941.

Much statistical and descriptive information on Papua, clearly showing the theories and policies of J. H. P. Murray.

The German Protectorates in the South Seas … Official Annual Report Published by the Imperial Colonial Office.

The Reports for 1900–1913 are available in English translation by H. A. Thomson.

Mainly factual description of education in New Guinea under German control.

Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of New Guinea.

Full descriptions of education in the Mandate period, issued annually 1921–1941.

Report of 1929–30 contains a “Report on Native Education in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea” by the then Director of Education, Queensland, B. J. McKenna.

Flierl Rev. J. Forty-five Years in New Guinea (trans. Professor Wiederaenders M. ). Ohio: The Lutheran Book Concern, 1931, and Christ in New Guinea. Tanunda, S.A.: Auricht's Printing Office, 1932.

Some detail on mission work in education in New Guinea—the Lutheran viewpoint.

Chignell A. K. An Outpost in Papua. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1911 and Twenty-one Years in Papua. London: A. R. Mowbray, 1913.

—and on mission work in education in Papua—the Anglican viewpoint.

Williams F. E. “Native Education (Intellectual)”; “Population and Education in Papua”; “The Blending of Cultures”;.”An Essay on the Aims of Native Education”. Anthropological Reports issued by the Government of Papua, Nos. 9, 1928, 13 and 14, 1933, and 16, 1935.

By the Government Anthropologist in Papua on the theory and practice of education, which received very little scholarly attention up to 1945.

Groves W. C. “Native Education and Culture Contact in New Guinea”. A.C.E.R. Educational Research Series No. 46, M.U.P., 1936. An examination of the state of native education by the man who later became the first post-war Director of Education.

Other writings both descriptive and critical of policies and practice in education occur in many of the more general works on Papua-New Guinea.

Among brief descriptions and evaluations of earlier times in periodical literature are: Miles, J. A. “The Development of Native Education in Papua and New Guinea”. South Pacific, 10, 6, 1959.

Ralph R. C. “Some Notes on Education in German New Guinea”. Papua and New Guinea Journal of Education, 3, 2, 1965.

Since 1945.

Among the relevant journals are Papua and New Guinea Journal of Education, New Guinea, Pacific Islands Monthly, Australian Territories, Journal of the Papua and New Guinea Society.

The annual Camilla Wedgwood Memorial Lectures and Seminars, which began in 1959, have mostly been published in the Papua and New Guinea Journal of Education (but will also be found in various forms elsewhere). They are devoted to problems of education in the Territory and other underdeveloped countries. Titles: Problems of Education in a Multilingual Society (Gibson, 1959); The Education of Women and Girls (Seddon, 1960); Some Problems of Community and Mass Education (Turner, 1961); Development of Higher Education Facilities in Underdeveloped Countries (Baffour, 1963); The Training of Teachers of Youths and Adults in an Expanding Education System (Murray, 1964); Relation of Education to Economic Development (Adiseshiah, 1965); Improving the Quality of Education (Beeby, 1966).

Many relevant articles have appeared in Pacific Islands Monthly. A series of three from Dec. 1959 to Feb. 1960, is an example, by G. T. Roscoe (also a former Director of Education), dealing with, inter alia, literacy and mission problems.

Debates on education in the T.P.N.G. House of Assembly are published. The most recent was Nov. 1967, and contained discussion of administration and mission roles in education. Papua and New Guinea House of Assembly Debates, Vol. 1: 15: 2862–2875. The following is a select list of references for Education in Papua and New Guinea, dealing with recent developments.

Hand D. “Education and the Missions”. New Guinea, 1, 6, 1966.

Wurm S. A. “Pidgin—A National Language”. New Guinea, 1, 6, 1966.

Fisk E. K. (Ed.). New Guinea on the Threshold. Australian National University Press, 1966 (especially chapters on education by Spate and on language and literacy by Wurm).

Gilbert Alan D. “Meanwhile, at Waigani…”. New Guinea, 2, 4, 1968. Evidence from a questionnaire on the opinions and attitudes of students concerning the contemporary situation and possible future developments in T.P.N.G.

Duncanson W. E. “The Papua and New Guinea Institute of Higher Technical Education”. Papua and New Guinea Journal of Education, 5, 3, 1968.

The assistance of Mr. Don Dickson, Senior Lecturer in History, and of Mr. Colin Freeman, Librarian of the New Guinea Collection, in the University of Papua and New Guinea, in compiling this bibliography, is gratefully acknowledged.