Inspiration for Education [1]
Saturday, November 30, 2002 - 09:00. Updated on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 - 18:00.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 3, November 2002.
Students who had better marks than they expected in their final exams this year, may have one visitor to thank, and that is Jim Peters, a New Zealand educator who was in Tonga in September to hold teacher workshops on “enabling students to study more efficiently.”
Jim stressed that there was no alternative to good teaching, along with a schools environment that makes students to want to learn. “Motivation is the answer for both teachers and students.”
Jim first came to Tonga in 1999 under a New Zealand aid program to Tongan schools. His Institutional Strengthening Project covered a wide area, from teachers training, to language training in the primary school, and a management program for principals in secondary schools. He said that in the end there were mixed results from that project, “because we tried to reach too many schools, in the end we did not do very well.”
This time Jim was requested by the schools of the Free Wesleyan Church, which also invited principals from other private schools to attend.
Jim is a former principal of the Tangaroa College and Western Springs College, in New Zealand, and is now a development officer for the New Zealand Ministry of Education, working in the field of Alternative Education for students who drop out from schools. The program encourages young people to return school and to learn a skill, which enables them to find employment.