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The Department of Education of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has implemented the Tok Ples Program in order to provide a guide for instructors of basic literacy. Tok Ples seeks to address problems concerned with basic literacy in PNG, including intense competition for resources and the many diverse language groups of the nation.
General Implications
- By using the local language in their schools, Tok Ples has attempted to ensure that Papua New Guinea continues to have a wide cultural and linguistic diversity.
Because of the wide range of different school options that primary students will encounter, Tok Ples stresses formal learning (reading and writing) as well as informal (life experience and creativity).
By using locally gathered and inexpensive materials, the teaching ideas of Tok Ples can be implemented quite easily and without high cost.
Specific Outcomes
 Statistics were accumulated from many different reports and some numbers are approximate:
- In 1994, there were 330 adult literacy programs with 449 teachers and 7,543 students, of which many were using Tok Pisin (a major language of PNG).
In 1994, there were 2,309 TPPS with 79,445 students.
Even with government support, many Tok Ples programs are run by local communities, church groups, Women's Councils, the YWCA, and some environmental groups.
Teachers are trained by various groups including the Summer Institute of Linguistics, the Language and Literacy Consultancy Group of the University of Papua New Guinea, and the Papua New Guinea Integral Human Development Trust (PNG Trust).
Since 1989, over 2000 people have been trained by these groups to be teachers and materials printed in many different languages, including Tok Pisin, Pijin, and Bislama.
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