Kate Oiph-Weers is the first Palauan teacher accepted for the Teacher Training Scholarship since it became available to Palau in January of this year.
She will be leaving Palau on October 1 to pursue a professional certification course on Science Education at the Naruto University of Education in Tokushima, Japan.Oiph-Weers will be gone for 18 months to further her skills in the fields of science. She will study there from October to March 2011.She will be provided an economy class air ticket to Japan and return upon completion of the program and will receive a monthly allowance of $1,700 or $1,900 for the housing and transportation.The tuition fees and other school fees will be paid by the Japan government through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology or MEXT.Oiph-Weers have been teaching science subject at the PHS for eight years now and the reason why she applied for the scholarship is the lack of science teacher.She said there are only two of them who are teaching science at the PHS.“I’m very excited, especially for the fact that it’s in the field of science. I see the need of having more science teachers. The reason why I’m seeking to equip myself with new practical and theoretical skills or methods of teaching science so I can know how to involve my students in the process of learning the concepts of science,” she said.Weers in her study proposal said that the performance of Palauan students in the area of science is very low. She said there are several contributing factors why and one of them is the delivery of relevant content materials by teachers and the students’ retention of information.“Students retain information better when we can provide the chance for them to learn constructively,” she said.Japan Charge’ D Affaires Masayuki Takashima said that there are two applicants for the program but Weers met the requirements.“When she comes back she will be equipped with skills to teach science and after her training hopefully we can see improvements in the performance of the students,” Takashima said.TTP is just one of the four scholarship programs of the Japan government as part of Japan’s continuing efforts t assist Palau’s developing human resources.Japan Embassy is also encouraging Palauan teachers to apply for the scholarship and to get applications from the Japan Embassy.
