This year’s pioneering Grade 12 students of Porgera Secondary School in Enga have been given an insight into the new Online Selection System for school leavers.
The system was launched in 2017 by the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST).
The Porgera Joint Venture (PJV), through its Community Development (CD) section, facilitated for three officials from the department to visit Porgera Secondary on 11 July to give more awareness about the new Online Selection System.
The three officials were from the Tertiary Admission and Scholarship Division (TASD) of DHERST.
They were executive manager Thimon Bune, admissions officer Lenita Mike and scholarships officer Nancy Gini.
The students heard about the processes involved in the Online School Leaver Form Application and a bit on the Chinese Scholarship Award package offered by the department.
Bune explained that there are no new changes in the selection process itself, only that the manual selection work done previously will now be done electronically.
“The system will process results and select students to study at their preferred institutions according to their academic performance. The advantages of this system are that it is transparent, cost effective, and it increases the chances of capable students being admitted into the tertiary institutions,” Bune said.
He added the number of existing tertiary institutions in the country cannot cater for the high number of students finishing off from secondary education every year.
He encouraged the students to do well above the rest in order to get a chance at selection.
Formerly Porgera High School, the institution was awarded secondary school status in 2016 with its first Grade Eleven intake in 2017. It now has 54 Grade 12 pioneer students.
Porgera Secondary School Principal, Tipian Tanda, thanked PJV for making it possible to have the education officials at the school to enlighten the students on this very important process.
PJV’s Community Development Superintendent, Lawrence Sipala, said PJV provided the assistance as it saw the information was vital for the students as pioneer Grade 12s of the Porgera Secondary School, and as the institution is the first public secondary school for the Porgera district.
The presentation ended with a question-and-answer session.
(Bune explains the Online School Leaver Form application to Porgera Secondary School students)
