Students from various boarding schools around New Ireland Province have been sent home to look for food as rations run out.
The most recent incident was that of Manggai Agro Secondary School in Kavieng district’s Tikana LLG, where classes were prematurely suspended for a week and students sent home.
During the New Ireland Provincial Assembly’s June sitting on Wednesday, June 14th, Chiefs’ representative, King Pawut, brought up the subject during the 40-minute question time.
Pawut told the chair, Deputy Governor Sammy Missen, that the boarding schools are sending students home to look for food. He asked if the two Open MPs can step in and assist the schools in their districts.
Funding constraints in learning institutions was also highlighted by the social services chief executive officer of the New Ireland Provincial Administration, Benson Apelis.
Apelis said schools have been pushed into a corner with the Government Tuition Fee Subsidy (GTFS) and the directive to not collect fees; that is why the administration issued an appeal to parents and guardians to assist schools when the need arises.
“Please do support the school in this very trying time where the government has really forced us to live within the GTFS allocation. It has been very difficult and I must honestly say again, it has been very difficult to run effective schools with the amount of GTFS that has been sent to us and the frequency to which they are being released to schools.”
Apelis said they hope the government understands their situation and comes in with aid.
He further appealed to the New Ireland Provincial Government to support their schools.
“In fact, under the decentralisation of educational functions, our provincial secondary schools are directly under the provincial government so we would appreciate if the school ration policy of the provincial government be activated again so they can continue to support our schools and give them the three balanced meals a day.”