“Education is not the filling of a cup, but the lighting of a fire.” - attributed to Socrates
First and foremost: you do not need to be a certified teacher! You don’t need a teaching degree, or even a college degree: there are no Government regulations for this kind of village school. Do not think of a typical American, 1st-world school.
One of our goals for this village school is to help the Angave people move away from the typical PNG-style learning which consists of the teacher copying the lesson onto the blackboard, and then the students copying it into their exercise books. We would like to move them toward self-learning and critical thinking.
You will need to learn Melanesian Pidgin, the grass-roots language of PNG. Fluency is usually arrived at within 4-6 months. Most of your communication will be in this language.
We are looking for someone willing to commit to a longer time period; this is not a short-term mission trip.
You would raise your own support from friends and church contacts, just as we did.
You will need to have your local church recommend you. We believe the local church works hand-in-hand with the missionaries on the field.
The students will be Angave children. PNG children usually start school much later than in other countries, so many of the 1st Graders are around 10 years old. We are establishing the school to give the children a simple and basic education, meaning that our goal is to teach them to read and write both English and their own language, to understand and be able to use mathematics, and use God’s word to give them an understanding of man, sin, redemption, the world, and God’s story being worked out as his-story.
The 2 of us along with various church leaders will be active in teaching both Bible and vernacular literacy.