Reflections of a Retired Teacher in PNG Highlands

By Seina Heriso

Some 25 years ago I was teaching in Kainantu High School.

There was a lesson that I taught back then to my boys that have always followed me.

Korkore boys dorm was known for having the filthiest showers and ablution blocks. The headmaster, Mr Hompat tasked me the job as Kokore Dorm matron. I was to make the boys keep the ablution block clean as it was a mere 40 meters or so from the headmasters ( his) house.🤭🤭🙊

Upon inspection, I saw that the toilets were filled with sticks n stones. Long story short, I rolled my sleeves up put on some gloves n rubber boots and some containers of detergent and got the boys cleaning and washing down the ablution block.

After scrubbing all day Saturday the blocks smelled and looked presentable.  I then told all the boys to come watch me as I did a mock example of how to sit, flush and use the toilet seat.

Then I had them all sit and also do mock example of using flush toilets. 

I proceeded to teach them about the use of toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrush and deodorant.  I explained to them the need for laundry soap and bathing soap and what a shampoo is.

They simply did NOT KNOW…They needed to be taught.

Kokore dorm won the prize for best kept toilets.

Over the years I realized also that our children NEEDED to be taught more then just math science and english, they needed to be taught what it meant to be a “Papua  New Guinean”..

You see there is no “Boot camp or summer camp or compulsory military camp”..

In other developed countries they have such “camps” where their young children are sent attend to be taught what it means to be an upstanding good citizen of honor and respect in their country. They are taught RIGHT and WRONG in terms of societal norms. They are “indoctrinated” on what it means to be loyal to their country and nationalism is groomed.

Prior to formal education, we only had the village community teach us. Many lessons in life was taught in the haus man and hausmeri.

Today we have nothing of this sort of “summer camp” the west have… we tried with boys and girls scouts…but that dilapated to nothing today..

We  are teaching children to read and write BUT NOT TEACHING them to be valuable, grounded, ethically morally sound Papua New Guineans. We were not teaching or molding them to be personally developed as a sound minded individual.  We were not equipping them to be mentally, emotionally socially capable of making sound decisions as  responsible citizens.

We had and have an education system that failed to groom upstanding citizens of virtues of honesty, truthfulness, respect and honor.. we failed to  raise thousands of honorable  leaders to wisely lead our thousands of tribes.

We are raising emotionally estranged and angry young nation builders…who have no mechanisms in place to process their own frustrations in every aspect of life.

Our education system removed the hausman and haus meri rituals that for thousands of years held the fabric of our society intact. Our tribal obligations and tribal institutions of hausman and hausmeri and customs preceeding for example, the entry to manhood and womanhood, or entry to marriage or deaths or births were ingrained with morals and values passed down from generations that protected the tribe and set guidelines to societal norms.

What we are are seeing now is the tip of the iceberg of a massive degeneration of social codes and norms.

We are reaping what we sowed for 40 years.

We do not have the ability or the mechanisms in place within ourselves to deal coherently with stress, conflict or emotional tangles…

We need to mend ourselves from within..individually.

The rise of inequality in living standards, high cost of living, half baked educated population, corrupt leaders and cronies… coupled with our uncanny ability to “adapt, evolve, survive”… is leading to an unrest that will be overunned by Papua New Guineans with self made rules and laws based on a corrupt, malfunctioning societal norm.

We need to fix our hausman.. evolve the hausman and hausmeri … incorporate it into our modern education and ” indoctrinate” our youths on what it means to be a TRUE proud, loyal, honest, respectful and morally sound Papua New Guinean.

We need “mass propaganda” to spread and influence good morals and values.

We need to rebuild from within…we need mindset change.

We need to start beginning to  raise and educate a thousand leaders for a thousand tribes.

The elections…this election has just triggered a massive Civil morally decayed unrest that cannot be contained easily as we are dealing with masses of troubled minds from years of  progressive regressiveness.

We used to have corrupt candidates and corrupt Electerol officials…

This election the masses of voters have “evolved” to something else and even candidates and Electerol officers are baffled as to who is corrupt.

We have become a society gone dysfunctional and the elections was the trigger for nationwide social unrest.

My reflections as I sit at home…

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