Acknowledging Tony Young MSC, 85.
From Melbourne, Tony Young was born on July 10th. 1935. He made his novitiate in 1955 and was professed on February 26th 1956. His studies for the priesthood took place at Sacred Heart Monastery, Croydon, Victoria and was ordained in Melbourne on July 23rd 1962.
In his almost 60 years of priesthood, he has spent most of his ministry in Papua New Guinea, principally in the diocese of Sideia, now Alotau, many years on the island of Nimowa.
In the last decade he has been working in establishing and maintaining the online education institution, Hope Academy – significant for developments in education (and important for these coronavirus times).
Companion of the Order of Star of Melanesia" (CSM), for service to the Catholic Church as a Priest in the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart working for over 50 years in Milne Bay Province.
From Tony Young’s 2017 report indicating the hopes of Hope Academy
Hope Academy began in 2007 as the first online education provider in PNG. For most of the time since then it remained on the fringe of the formal education establishment, and has been regarded by the few who noticed it is an interesting, but probably temporary, initiative.
Certainly, the Academy has had a lot to overcome: a cyclone the trashed years of work, technical and financial problems, unreliable Internet providers and expensive connections, the forced abandonment of the classroom on which much money had been spent: these were a few of the difficulties are nearly forced to closure of the Academy on a number of occasions, including in 2017.
However, during the 10 years of Hope Academy’s existence, the shape of education has gradually changed as the number and quality of the courses offered on the Internet increased very quickly, and as the advantages of the use in education became widely accepted – more quickly, it seems, by students then those whose obligation it is to provide for their education.
In 2017 Hope Academy had nearly 200 students enrolled at Allison, an Internet school-based in Ireland, with a total enrolment of 4 million learners worldwide. Of those nearly 10,000 were from PNG. That makes Allison the second largest education provider in the country. That 10,000 PNG students are being educated at Allison with no discernible cost to the national budget should give a elected Members much food for thought.
Alison, now aligned with Google, has encouraged Hope Academy to host an Allison Learning Centre in PNG, the first of 15 such centres it wants to establish in various countries of the world.
There are still questions to be answered, but if this happens, it will be a feather in the cap of PNG, as well is an affirmation of the worth of the years of generous support from our friends in church, government, and in private life, together with the hard work of our staff, students, and parents. For the first time the continued existence of Hope Academy will have support from a substantial online organisation.
