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Major Speeches |
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March 31, 2008
President Litokwa Tomeing
Brief Remarks
Opening Ceremony
TVET/NVTI
31 March 2008
ICC, MAJURO
I am glad that we have a chance to “rethink” yet again another form of education in relation to vocationalizing our curriculum, and I am thankful for your invitation, affording me an occasion to share some views on the subject. This is an important subject from the point of view of our people because, as President Kennedy once said, a child miseducated is lost forever.
First of all, I thank God for this time and greetings to everyone.
I think that among the foremost prerequisites we should be aware of in this type of undertaking, is clarity. We should be very clear and methodical in our thinking as we apply ourselves to the task. And to help us in this regard, we should begin by asking ourselves some key and honest questions regarding the subject; not any shallow type of questions, but questions which help define and guide our perspective and actions for the future. A Chinese proverb says that a person who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, and a person who does not ask at all is a fool all his life? Asking questions enable us penetrate some of our old misconceptions about things and help us to weed them out. We should ask:
Why should we vocationalise our curriculum? Is it because some country somewhere, or some well meaning group of people somewhere got gung-ho about the idea and it seems to work well for them under their own conditions and type of needs which may be quite different from ours, and after a while they will get tired with it and then move on to another fad? Or is it because there are some really powerful concepts in the idea which we think are good for us and we wish to try these out?
At which point in the curriculum should the vocationalizing process begin, throughout or only in certain areas? How in-depth will this process be? What kind of content matter should we incorporate? What age group or level should we expose them to vocational aspects of the curriculum? What is it that we wish to achieve from this process? What is the clear end product in terms of learning enrichment? How does it help reinforce good characters? Should the academically gifted students be also subjected to the rigor of this idea? Who will teach a vocationalising curriculum? Can our teachers teach it? Is it realistic to talk at this point about vocationalising curriculum when we do not even have a national academic curriculum both at elementary and high school level? Is it fitting and will it benefit? Are we integrating vocational elements into an academically oriented program of studies, or is this going to be a separate program? Where does one draw the balance between the two, and how does one reinforce the other?
I do not know the answers to these questions, however, Minister Nidal Lorak is himself an educator by training and we should rely as much as possible on him to guide us!
I am only posing some of these questions because I want to stress the point that we should be very clear about what we wish to do. We do not want to duplicate things unnecessarily, neither do we want to thrown ourselves at them without a clear and thorough examination of own situation and experience. We do not have the luxury to simply create things for their own sake. After all, we had a vocational program before at the Marshall Islands High School for some years before it disappeared. We had School to Work, it too disappeared. But we can compensate for our resource poor condition by being a little bit more creative.
So I urge you to ask and ask again, think and rethink these issues before you embark.
Your motto is a fitting one, one which I support and encourage as it also provides the valuable opportunity for us to revisit and rethink the importance of holding onto our traditional customs and way of life, including our traditional knowledge and history.
Far better to start late but on the right premise that to try and be seen to be doing something soon and it is the wrong thing. After all, it is our country, and we all care that we get it right for our sake and the sake of future generations.
With all my very best wishes. Thank you.
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