(Pona
District
PONAPE
(2)
(Cont'd)
Sanitation measures are supervised by CivAd medical
officers, with the assistance of three native sanitary inspectorse Sanitation appeared satisfactory, except that
construction of an adequate filtration system in the fresh
water supply lines and proper marking of fencing of the
water shed area should be expedited.
(c) Education.
Ponape has & public schools with attendance of 501, 2
Catholic mission schools with 336 pupils, 2 Protestant mission schools with 62 students, and one intermediate school
with an attendance of 45 prospective teachers for public
elementary schools of the Pomape District. Teachers at those
schools inspected appeared above average in training. A US.
civilian educational director presides at the intermediate
school, which is in reconstructed quonset huts and is wellarranged, clean, light, and well-equipped. A new cement,
permanent~construction schoolhouse is being built, tentatively designated for the intermediate school.
Plans are being made to instruct students of the inter~
mediate school in subsistence gardening at the CivAd Agriculture Experiment Station. This former Japanese experimental
station is now under rehabilitation under the able super-
setts
vision of Professor Robert E- Burton, who is on loan to the
etaaD, *}
Trust Territory administration from the University of Hawaii,
and has made encouraging progress since his arrival on Ponape
in November 1948. Professor Burton has proposed that intermediate schooltrainees receive academic training in the first
two years of their course and vocational training - agriculture, arts and crafts - in their last year. Under this proposal, existing buildings at the Agriculture Experiment Station would be renovated to house the intermediate school, and
the new school building tentatively designated for the intermediate school would be used for the public elementary school.
dseenate,
Early financing of this proposal is recommended.
(For further
details of the Agriculture Experiment Station, see comment
under "Economic development" on pages 36 and 37, Tab Ae)
The inspection party reviewed with interest accounts of
the second annual Christmas Party for Ponapean children which
had been held 23 December, and is described at some length in
CivAd's report for the quarter ending 31 December 1948.
(4)
Religion.
There are 10 Protestant churches and 5 Catholic churches
on Ponape Island.
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