Teachers Housing Project – CoBiz Projects

Details

Project Title: Teachers Housing Program
Location: Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea
Date: January 2011 – Current
Cost: 2 million USD
Time Line: 24-months
Project Manager: Zach Jones

Abstract

In January of 2011, in partnership with the Governor of Eastern Highlands – Malcolm Smith and LNG Energy of Calgary, Alberta a program was developed to address the growing issue of teacher retention in the remote areas of the Province. Research and consultation was done at the community level, and in conjunction with Local Level Government, District and Provincial Education departments, a project brief was developed and agreed upon by local stakeholders. Drawings and detailed material list were drawn up as well as a complex implementation strategy to build 40 houses over 2 years across the province.

Introduction

Aging government infrastructure is a common reality across Papua New Guinea. In most areas and especially the more remote districts, maintenance to existing and or construction of additional infrastructure has not been carried out in almost 20 years. Many roads that access government services are either in poor condition or non existent, making travel and routine maintenance and staffing of health, education or other government services very difficult if not impossible. Therefore a large portion of existing teachers and health professional housing, clinics, schools and other facilities are in disrepair and in some cases uninhabitable. As a result, many professionals once educated in the city are reluctant to return to the remote areas of the province to teach or provide much needed health services due to the poor accommodation situation that they face. This housing scheme sought to address teacher retention in the remote areas by providing adequate accommodation with clean drinking water and solar power in an attempt to draw teachers back to remote schools and provide them with a similar level of accommodation which they might find in an urban environment. It addressed three key areas:

1 – Secure potable water source located, storage facility constructed, and water piped to each house

2 – Provide a standard of housing equal or better than might be sourced in an urban environment

3 – Equip houses with solar lighting to ensure productive use of nighttime hours for marking, lesson planning and leisure activities.

Project Design

The process of developing the design brief took approximate 3 months. School sites around the province were visited and the types of houses currently in use were surveyed and documented. Consultation was carried out with local school board members and teachers to understand better the type and size of house best suited for the locations. Extensive time was spent with the Local Level, District and Provincial Eduction departments in order to satisfy their requirements for housing and to coordinate the project with other education capital projects which were underway at the time. As a result of the huge housing deficit across the province, site selection was based on strict criteria which targeted school sites that had a record of consistent reporting and good fiscal financial management and who were in need of additional housing. In some cases, schools were paying for teaching positions, but were unable to bring those teachers to the school due to the lack of available housing. In these cases, priority was given. Houses were designed with 3 bedrooms, a shower room, combined kitchen/living/dining with in a 60sqm footprint. An outside covered area with a wood burning stove for cooking was also provided as well as a separate, modern (non-septic) toilet house.

Houses were designed in consultation with a local carpentry training center using locally understood materials, techniques and methods, with the idea being that local apprentices would receive on the job training while working with the contractor to construct the houses as the need for on the job training for carpentry students was put forth as a major issue. The contractor who was awarded the project contract had been trained at the school 20 years prior and agreed to take on apprentices during the construction phase. We saw this an an added net benefit to the overall project outcomes where we were able to not only provide housing, but also carryout valuable training in the process.

Implementation

The geography of the Eastern Highlands is incredibly complex and current road conditions reflect the harsh realities of negotiating its rugged terrain. Moving materials and manpower around to the different sites was alone, one of the biggest hurdles of the project. Once the project was awarded to the contractor, he was supported by an advance on the contract payments to purchase a 6M long 4wd flat-deck truck in hopes that his would assist in keeping the project on schedule, this turned out to be a wise decision. Security was also a huge issue, both for the valuable materials and for workmen going to and from site, but by integrating implementation decisions with local stakeholders and communities, hiring local trucks and labor when possible, much of the liability was shifted to the local level, therefore securing safe passage for project materials and personnel to date. It was decided that as much of the construction as possible should be ‘modularized’, in this case meaning that as much of the material as possible was pre-cut to length, windows and doors were pre-assembled, roofing and exterior siding was delivered to site ready for assembly with no cutting necessary. This greatly reduced the amount of material wastage, time spent on site to construct the buildings and drastically improved the quality of the over-all build.

Conclusion

This was the first time in many years that the Eastern Highlands Province, and one could argue the country had seen a building program of its kind to address housing in the rural areas. By all accounts it was an incredibly successful program which will have a huge impact on teacher retention and ultimately on learning outcomes for students. The new houses will ensure that teachers are less likely to be absent from the school due to housing related issues and therefore will spend more hours in the classroom and will be available for students when needed. Clean potable water piped into each house ensures that teachers do not spend long hours securing water for drinking and washing activities. It also ensures a safe drinking source which has decreased the number of sick days for teachers as a result of water borne illnesses. The solar lighting gives them opportunity to plan lessons for the following day and to charge devices like mobile phones and have access to radio and television.