free education policy

Morobe’s program advisor for education, Keith Tangui, said with thousands of primary and secondary students flocking into schools, parents need to ensure the environment is conducive for learning.

“Because it’s free education, as announced by the Prime Minister and Minister for Education, parents will send many students,” he stated.

“But before they do that, the onus is on parents to make sure the school is in a conducive environment for the students.

“They cannot complain – and sit down – and say oh, the government has not done this or that.

The funding is part of K632 million allocated in this year’s budget to the Department of Education (DoE), as per the free education policy.

The DoE will be working with all schools across the country to ensure that funds are in their school accounts, when the academic year commences.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said his People’s National Congress Party will push for the funds establishment if it forms government in September.     

He said the fund will be built on the Free Education Policy the Government has funded in the last 6 years.          

“Also, we want to expand the program up to the tertiary education, we cannot only educate our kids up to year 12 and allow them to run around and do their own thing, which is what our system has been doing in the last 40 plus years,” O’Neill said on FM 100 Talk Back show on Thursday.    

The ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) Party, led by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill want to make its Free Education Policy into an Act of Parliament.

He also admitted that the policy needs to be reviewed.

“I agree with many of our critics that there have been challenges, it has not been easy but it does not mean that it is a bad policy,” O’Neill said on FM 100 Talk back show on Thursday.    

“We accept criticism of its Free Education Policy but adamant to improve and make it a legal law if PNC forms Government.      

“PNG Party has the vision and we will do it (free education policy) better than what it is today,” said Party General Secretary Kila Poka.

He made this comment when speaking to media at the National Research Institute on Thursday after presenting the party policies.

The Party is currently in the Opposition, and expected to endorse 60 candidates in the 2017 National Elections, which is a month away.  

“Before doing free education policy we must come up with an infrastructure to accommodate the influx of students, unfortunately that is not there (today),” Poka said.

Kene Aiyele comes from Pangia in Southern Highlands and is a police officer in the nation’s capital.

Aiyele thanked the government for this initiative as it has helped a lot of parents by taking a lot of financial burden off their shoulders.

Aiyele said paying for uniforms and stationery costs a lot of money.

Every year, he spends about K400 on uniforms and K300 on stationery.

“Before free education, we parents always had to dig deep into our pockets but now we are fortunate that we don’t have to pay school fees.