THE
WORLD
BANK
Papua New Guinea 93404
Flexible and Open
Distance Education
Project
Increasing opportunities for out-of-school youth to gain Improve the quality of the
equivalency curriculum across
recognised qualifications. Papua New Guinea.
Background Increase tutor-student contact
The Flexible Open and Distance Education (FODE) centre is the only public distance learning hours in provincial centres.
institution serving Papua New Guinea’s upper primary and secondary school leavers. It provides
English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science courses that are primarily delivered through Introduce new technologies that
correspondence-based distance learning, supported occasionally by on-site tutors and teachers. will improve efficiency and reduce
costs in distance education centres.
FODE has 20 provincial centres that coordinate services provided within their respective provinces, as
well as about 25 affiliated study centres. Although the institution has significant potential to support a
relatively large, under-served and growing segment of out-of-school youth, it has suffered for many
years from inadequate resources and technical support. At the same time, demand for FODE’s
programs continues to rise. Currently, FODE has an enrolment of about 46,000 active students, as
compared to about 65,000 students currently enrolled in formal secondary education throughout the
country.
Location: The project will be
implemented using the 20 FODE
centres based in the provinces.
Approval Date: 11 January 2011
Closing Date: 30 April 2016
Total Project Cost: US$6 million
About the Project Donors: World Bank (International
The development objective of this Flexible and Open Distance Education (FODE) Project is to Development Association)—US$5
million
increase the number of out-of-school youth who complete recognised secondary diploma and
Government of Papua New
certificate equivalency programs. There are four components to the project. Guinea—US$1 million
Component one aims to improve the quality of distance learning curricula and the quality and Implementing Agency: Papua New
availability of instructional materials. The project will support the development of new curriculum Guinea Department of National
materials and/or upgrade existing materials for Grades 7 through 12, using FODE's standardised Education
distance learning format.
Contacts
Component two aims to improve the overall quality of services provided by FODE. Within the FODE
central campus and the 20 provincial centres, interventions will be focused on improving performance World Bank Task Team Leader
James Stevens
through staff training, simplification of forms and procedures, establishing and implementing an
Senior Operations Officer
Information Technology (IT) plan, and selecting and engaging subject tutors in the provincial centres. jstevens2@worldbank.org
Component three aims to expand FODE's existing Grade 11-12 enrolment program into at least one Flexible and Open Distance
secondary school in each of Papua New Guinea's twenty provinces. Project support will reimburse Education Centre
secondary schools for the use of their facilities, provide classrooms with small equipment and Mr. Demas Tongogo
Principal
instructional materials, and cover the cost of after-hours teaching by existing subject teachers in each
Demas_Tongogo@educationpng.
school. gov.pg
Tel: (675) 323 0299 / 7222 8112 /
Component four aims to provide FODE with appropriate IT technology and train FODE staff to 7699 7802
effectively operate that technology. It will provide funding for an IT needs assessment, procurement
of IT equipment, establishment of an IT plan for FODE, and implementation of the plan to fully
integrate the use of IT into the administration, curriculum development, materials production and www.worldbank.org/pg
teaching/learning activities conducted by the organisation.