[lg policy] New English push in Tongan schools

[Harold Schiffman]

New English push in Tongan schools

Updated February 2, 2012 08:57:33

There's a new push to teach English in schools across Tonga in the
hope of creating a bilingual society more suited to the modern world.
Tongan will remain the main language in the early years of schooling
but as students progress more lessons in English will be introduced to
ensure that when they leave high school at age 18 they should be able
to speak, listen, write, and read in both Tongan and English.

Paula Fonua, President of the Tongatapu School Principals' Association
welcomes the new language policy but says government schools may have
greater difficulty implementing the changes that church schools.

[Interview:]

FONUA: It's only now that the policy has actually been written down,
but there has always been this policy of teaching in Tongan and in
English throughout the primary and secondary school system.

COUTTS: Well what's breaking down, I mean that it hasn't been taught
consistently enough? Is that the issue and so now they're trying to
make sure that this policy will make sure that it's taught on a
regular basis?

FONUA: I think the reality of the situation is what actually happens
in the classroom, and in many of the classrooms for example on some of
the outer islands which have maybe a class of five or six students and
one teacher to teach multi classes, it's difficult to uphold the
policy throughout the whole education system. So I think the push now
is to try and make sure that teachers know why the policy is in place
and that they try and use it more in the classroom.

COUTTS: Are you having specialist teachers, I'm wondering whether the
teachers' themselves English is good enough to actually be able to
teach it?

FONUA: There are no specialist teachers but I think what the ministry
is trying to do is get the teachers who are presently teaching to use
more English and certain amounts of Tongan in their classrooms. For
example at class four the English language is supposed to be
introduced at 20 per cent and 80 per cent in Tongan, and then it
progresses throughout from class four right through to secondary
school. And as you get up to the higher levels of secondary school,
they'll be more English and less Tongan.

COUTTS: Well how proficient would you expect students to be once they
get to tertiary level and graduate?

FONUA: There are certain learning outcomes in the curriculum and in
the prescriptions for the higher levels of secondary school, which
actually states how much and what sort of skills the students should
be leaving with. And I guess this is what they try to assess and test
in the national exams at the form 5 and form 6 and form 7. So the
proficiency levels are actually stated in each of the curriculum
documents, and this is what the teachers are expected to strive
towards.

COUTTS: What about support materials, the text books, will they be
bilingual as well?

FONUA: At present there have been new curriculum documents written for
primary school up to year 8, and those new documents are bilingual,
including things like teachers guides and pupils books, and those new
documents are designed so that the language policy has already been
written into them, so that you have a certain percentage of class 4, a
certain percentage of class 5 and so on. But I think the next part of
this project is that they will move on to secondary school curriculum
documents and resources, and then they will build the language policy
into those documents. So at the beginning of this year the project has
completed curriculum documents, teachers guides and pupils books and
other resource documents for class 1 right through to class 8. And
then the next part of the project will be to continue on to the
secondary school classes.

COUTTS: So you're taking a purist approach, you have specific English
lessons that won't so much be integrated where some maths lessons or
some science lessons will also be conducted in English, so there's a
practical use of the language?

FONUA: Yes, it's a more practical use of the language.

COUTTS: So it'll be used right across the board not just specialist
English lessons?

FONUA: Not just specialist English, yes.

COUTTS: And that's already underway?

FONUA: This is starting this year, this is the first year in which the
new curriculum for the primary schools right through to class 8 will
be implemented throughout the kingdom. In the past years it has been
trialed, certain schools have been selected to trial these documents,
and this is the actual first year of full implementation.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201202/s3421188.htm

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