Theo Zurenuoc is a Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

n politician.

He was first elected to the National Parliament

National Parliament of Papua New Guinea

The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was first created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea, but gained its current name with the granting of independence in 1975....

 in the 2007 general election

Papua New Guinean general election, 2007

General elections were held in Papua New Guinea from 30 June 2007 to 14 July 2007.For the first time, the election did not use first past the post , but rather Limited Preferential Voting, in which voters number...

, as independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 MP for Finschhafen District in Morobe Province

Morobe Province

Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital, and largest city, is Lae. The province covers 34,500 km², including 719 km² maritime area, with a population of 539,725...

, though he subsequently joined the People's Progress Party

People's Progress Party

The People's Progress Party is a political party in Papua New Guinea. It is led by Sir Julius Chan, and has 4 of 109 seats in parliament.It was founded in 1968 by Chan, who was Prime Minister from 1980 to 1982 and 1994 to 1997. Chan’s second government was brought down by the Sandline Affair and...

. He won the seat by defeating the incumbent, his uncle Guao Zurenuoc.

In 2009, during a parliamentary debate on a government bill which would have seen women nominated to Parliament, Zurenuoc opposed the idea of nominated parliamentarians, but said he would support reserved seats for women specifically to elect representatives.

At the start of August 2011, Zurenuoc supported a successful parliamentary motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence

A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...

 which brought down the government of Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal

Sam Abal

Samuel Tei "Sam" Abal is a Papua New Guinean politician. Abal, who previously served as Foreign Minister from August 2007 to December 2010, became the Deputy Prime Minister of the country in a cabinet reshuffle by Michael Somare on 7 December 2010...

 (standing in for Somare while the latter was hospitalised for a serious heart condition), enabling Peter O'Neill

Peter O'Neill

Peter Charles Paire O'Neill, CMG is the current Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. He is the leader of the People's National Congress and represents the constituency of Ialibu-Pangia.-Biography:...

 to become Prime Minister. O'Neill appointed Zurenuoc as his Minister for Education. One of the O'Neill government's first announcements was that it would commit funds to providing free primary education to all children in the country, and subsidised secondary education. Faced with questions about funding, Zurenuoc stated: "We can and will find the money to execute this objective, we will cut out fats of the budget and fund this worthier cost. [...] We will sacrifice expenses in other less important areas to give undivided attention to this noble task of giving our children a future that they have have been deprived of for so long." He also said all classes should be in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 in primary schools, with classes in indigenous languages

Languages of Papua New Guinea

The languages of Papua New Guinea today number over 850, making it the most linguistically diverse place on earth. Its official languages are Tok Pisin, English and Hiri Motu...

 abolished, and that outcome-based education

Outcome-based education

Outcome-based education is a recurring education reform model. It is a student-centered learning philosophy that focuses on empirically measuring student performance, which are called outcomes. OBE contrasts with traditional education, which primarily focuses on the resources that are available...

should be abandoned, since many teachers considered it to be "suppressive, irrelevent, outdated and not working".