Panel One on the Pig’s Tusk at the entrance to Parliament House, flanked by life-size pictures (from left to right): the late former MP for Pentecost, Vincent Boulekone; the late former Chief Minister, Father Gerard Leymang of Malekula; the late George Kalsakau of Ifira; and the late Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini of Pentecost.
Transparency International Vanuatu’s (TIV) Civic Education Officer, Douglas Tamara, has called for Civic Education to be included in the national school curriculum.
Tamara said there is now a growing need for parents and schools to teach children the importance of doing what is right. “For example, do not litter our streets and roads, and please do not scribble graffiti and rude words on walls,” he said.
With international negative social influences affecting young people, Tamara said that if “common sense” needs to be introduced in schools, then it should be.
He made the call during the first Mock Parliament Session staged by senior students from Malapoa College, Onesua Presbyterian College, Lycée Louis Antoine de Bougainville (LAB), Montmartre and the National Youth Council to mark International Democracy Day on September 15.
“In fact, what I want to stress is basic common sense, especially in urban centres where new social media programs are taking away parents’ quality time with their children,” Tamara said.
He recalled the words of the late former Prime Minister, Donald Kalpokas, who once described the youth as a “generation look down”. “This is exactly what they do. They stare at their mobile phone screens instead of listening to their parents,” he said.
Tamara pointed to the behaviour of some groups of young boys roaming on bikes with loud reggae music.
“They play at full volume without any care that they may be disturbing the neighbourhood,” he said.
According to Tamara, civic education simply means learning how to conduct ourselves. He noted that behaviour in the village setting is different, and when young people lose respect for others, civic education becomes necessary.
After attending a panel that included three of the country’s Independence pioneers—former Prime Ministers Pastor Sethy John Regenvanu and Barak Tame Sope—Tamara said their presence was a reminder of the leaders who made freedom possible.
“Our pioneers were the very leaders who dared to set our country free from 74 years of colonialism, which ended with Independence on July 30, 1980,” he said.
“Many public servants who had worked for the British and French services shed tears of sadness when they saw the British and French flags lowered for the last time at midnight on July 29, 1980, farewelling 74 years of joint colonial rule.”
Now, 46 years later, Tamara said those born after July 30, 1980, must listen to the country’s remaining pioneer leaders to understand and accept why they too have an important role to play in Vanuatu’s economic, political, social and cultural development.
SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST
