Table 8. Ranking of language viability by village Language
Village Tok Pisin
Vernacular Overlap
Migum Singor
12 4
4 Migum
Lamtub 12
4 4
Yabong Baded
12 5
5 Nekgini
Serieng 12
5 5
Neko Damoing
12 7
7 Neko
Warai 12
8 8
Nekgini Reite
8 6
4 Nekgini
Asang 8
6 2
Nekgini Sorang
8 6
2 Yabong
Masi 8
4 Yabong
Bidua 7
5 Yabong
Basor 7
5
3.1.6 Language use in schools
In addition to looking at all the schools in the Yabong, Migum, Nekgini and Neko language areas, we interviewed the headmaster at Dein Primary School. Although this school is located in the Karo dialect
area, it is attended by many students from the Yabong language area. In the following sections, however, generalisations made about the schools in the language area do not include Dein Primary School. If there
was no school in the village, then we interviewed a small group of community members consisting of mothers and the students themselves.
8
There is more education-related language data in section 3.2.2 since it pertains to attitudes. School staff
There are clear trends in the background of the school staff. While TPPS and elementary schools are staffed entirely by teachers from the respective language area, the primary schools have virtually no
teachers from the area.
9
The primary schools have a higher rate of staff turnover than the elementary or TPPS schools. According to the teachers, the TPPS schools all have committed, permanent teachers. In reality, these
schools have only been operating for a short time, so the level of commitment is difficult to determine. However, the majority of teachers have been with the TPPS schools since they opened. The same holds
true at the elementary schools. At Basor, the school has only been open since 2007, but at the time of the survey the teachers there felt that they were permanent, and they all came from the language area. The
8
Bidua, Baded, Singor, Asang and Serieng have no school present so the interviews were completed with community members. Lamtub village is a 20 minute walk from Lamtub school, and so a community interview was completed in
Lamtub village as well as an education interview at the school. Reite has a Tok Ples Prep Skul TPPS as well as a primary school, so teachers from both schools were interviewed.
9
One teacher at Lamtub Primary School is from Migum. The headteachers of Dein Primary School and Lamtub Primary School are from the Highlands. The remaining staff come from the Sepik, the Islands or other language
areas in Madang Province Bel, Karo and Bargam.
other two elementary schools, in Damoing and Warai, are more established with committed teachers. However, in all three primary schools the rate of turnover sharply increases. All of the teachers are from
outside the language area and often remain at the school only as long as they are required to by the government. This time varies depending on their level of experience, but it is usually one or two years.
The headmaster at Reite Primary School reported that this was because the teachers tend to feel isolated from their families and that living there is hard.
3.1.7 Language use in churches
