Madang must prioritise education; build more high schools, says headmaster

A senior education officer in Madang Province has called on responsible authorities to prioritize education in its development plans.

Headmaster of Holy Spirit Primary School Francis Arigini, said there is a need for more high schools to be built to cater for the annual increases in the number of students continuing onto grade nine.

Arigini, who is also the coordinator of the National Grade 8 Examinations in the province, made the call in light of the critical shortage of grade 9 spaces in the existing high schools.

"Last year, there were 9000 plus grade 8 students that sat for the national examination. Available spaces in grade 9 can only cater for about 4000," he said.

"Parents are now bombarded with this problem. They can't find space for their children. Where do these kids go? We will expect streets to be filled up with them. That's what I'm seeing.

"We have to build facilities to cater for our population. The population is increasing, our school facilities seem to be the same so something needs to be done somewhere.

"Classrooms must be built, teachers' houses must be built so there is a free flow of education right through to grade 12. Priorities must be right. Our priorities for education in Madang must be right."

In the case of Madang Urban, Mr Arigini revealed there is still a huge number of students without any space from schools that feed Tusbab Secondary.

"The cluster from schools that feed Tusbab would be about 2000. However; the spaces at Tusbab can only cater for just over 300. The big number is still there looking for opportunities," the headmaster said.

"We have private schools like Madang Christian Academy and Mercy Learning Centre, however; due to the current economic situation the country is going through, most parents can not afford to send their children there due to the high school fees so that's where we are."

Meanwhile, another concern that Mr Arigini pointed out is the late release of certificates for grades 8, 10, and 12 students from last year by the Education Department.

He said that whilst the students need their certificates to enrol in their new schools to continue grades 9 and 11, the Education Department has been giving the excuse that the blank certificates are not in Papua New Guinea.

"Advice from the department was that the certificates would be ready by early January but we are still waiting and it's now February. It's not a provincial issue, it's a national issue. All 22 provinces are facing this problem," he said.

"Some of the students who cannot find a space in Madang schools would like to go out to other provinces and seek spaces but they can't right now because of this delay. Provinces like East Sepik and Western Highlands have a lot of high schools and students would like to go there and find spaces but no with no certificates, how will they go there."

Arigini said primary schools have prepared identification letters for students who got accepted into grade 9, which they will present at their new schools for registration.

The schools will then crosscheck with the lists they have before accepting the students into the classrooms.