Minister for Education

In a media release this afternoon, the Prime Minister stated;

"My dear People of Papua New Guinea,

"It is with the greatest sorrow that I inform you of the untimely death of one of our sons and my Minister for Education, Honorable Jimmy Uguro.

"The late Minister Uguro was Member for Usino-Bundi and also a loyal member of my party, Pangu. He was on duty travel to East Sepik Province when he passed.

Uguro told this newsroom that the people behaved well and observed the festive period peacefully.

“Our people behaved well during Christmas and New Year, and I commend the police personnel, including community policing for doing their call of duty very well with limited resources. 

“Christmas does not bring anything new but helps us to reform and transform our lifestyle doing the same thing in a different way. 

“I also commend the youths and citizens for doing the right thing by observing the New Year’s Eve with respect and love.” 

On a visit to the school yesterday, Member for Gazelle, Jelta Wong accompanied Minister Uguro to the site where the school was burnt down three weeks ago.

Minister Uguro condemned the actions of those perpetrators in the community in burning down the school building.

He said this is not the solution to any problem and this ill behaviour must stop.

The Minister said communities must take ownership of school infrastructure such as classrooms, teacher’s houses, students, water tanks, power and refrain from burning them down.

Minister Uguro made this clarification in the floor of Parliament after Member for Moresby Northeast John Kaupa raised the issue on charging of project fees. Minister Uguro also warned that ‘those who are caught overcharging fees will be dealt with accordingly. School Principals and teachers if found doing this will be removed from their jobs."

The Minister added that directives were issued to the Teaching Service Commission to conduct investigation into schools illegally over charging project fees to the students.

“Students must learn to take their grievances to the right authority in the school if they are not happy with the school management, instead of taking their frustrations out on school property like classrooms and dormitories,” the Minister said.

Minister Uguro highlighted this after a number of schools and institutions’ facilities, such as classrooms and dormitories, were either allegedly damaged or burned down by students.

The Minister for Education will officially open the conference in a brief ceremony on the evening of Sunday, May 23, at the Gateway Hotel.

The conference is conducted each year to rate the performances of the teaching staff in order to maintain high standards in schools.

This year is the sixth conference and will be attended by officers from School Inspections Division (SID), Teacher Education Division (TED) and Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) Division, Support Staff and Provincial Education Advisors.

Minister for Education, Joseph Yopyyopy, has recently launched the new application called “MyPAYSLIP”.

The launching of the web application took place at the PNG Education Institute Hall in the National Capital District.

When launching the web application, Education Minister Yopyyopy said the Department of Education in collaboration with the Finance Department has improved access to payslips for teachers and education officers with the development of a web based application to produce teachers and education public servants’ payslips.

Minister for Education Joseph Yopyyopy confirmed this in Parliament yesterday.

Yopyyopy informed Parliament of changes in the education sector in response to Markham MP Koni Iguan, saying the current Outcome Based Education program only emphasizes the quantity and not the quality of education.

“Education department will be reintroducing the Standard Based Education system, which is Grades 1-6 and Grades 7-12. One of the problem with OBE system was that teachers are not teaching the same courses across the board, which affects students during the examinations.”

In a statement, Minister for Education, Nick Kuman, questioned why the suspect, known as Andy Paro from Hela Province, was posing as a teacher under different names and file numbers.

“I am directing the Department and TSC to conduct a full investigation while I consider an independent team outside the Ministry to also conduct an investigation so that we clean out the mess in our systems and processes,” said the Minister.