Madang Government gives K500,000 to upgrade school

The Madang Provincial Government has given K500, 000 to Madang Technical College, towards the college's initial preparations on becoming a Polytechnical college in the near future.

Mr Pariwa was at the college yesterday and presented a dummy cheque plus the remittance advice stating that the money has been deposited into the college's account.

At hand, to receive the dummy cheque was Deputy Principal- Administration, Robert Turik, and members of the college's Governing Council, Henry Kambuka and Alex Paira, witnessed by staff and students.

Mr Pariwa made a commitment last year that he would return to school, and he did yesterday with the dummy cheque.

"I decided to come back and support this institute because Madang Technical College is a distinguished institution of higher technical learning in the province. If we are serious about building the nation, then Madang Technical College is an institute of nation-building, so we must invest in it.

"I am proud to say that Madang Technical College is my highest technical learning institution in the province. I must look around in the province to ensure we build the capacity of the institution to empower the learning environment build and instill skills into our youth population," Pariwa said.

He added that whilst a lot of students get into primary schools through to high and secondary schools, not a lot get into universities because of the system and the capacity to accommodate the entire students.

Once updagraded to a polytechnical college, the institute can introduce more technical courses than what it is already offering.

Governor Pariwa further emphasized that if we truly want to build this nation, we must invest in human resources.

Mr Pariwa reiterated that his commitment to education is a priority, adding work on uplifting the level of Madang Technical College into a Polytechnical college starts now.

"It cannot happen overnight, but it has to start somewhere, somehow and it has started now. We will upscale the level with or without the support of the National Government because I have had enough of talks," Governor Pariwa said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Principal, Administration, Robert Turik commended Governor Pariwa for his government's support to the college.

Mr Turik also took the opportunity to highlight a new concept that Madang Technical College has embarked on to help create pathways for students in vocational schools around the country.

The concept is called Downlinking and Uplinking.

Turik explained, "We have gone out to several vocational schools in the province and outside including a study centre in Manus and a vocational school on Rabaul. Next, we are going to Tari. The Downlinking concept is to create pathways for the students as per the government's policy on leaving no one behind."

"So the students that don't go through the formal way of education, we are creating that pathway for them in accordance with the Department of Higher Education's PNG National Qualification Framework, which includes 11 steps from level one certificate to masters and doctorate level. So we are giving the chance competitively.

"When we downlink with a FODE or vocational school, their students have the opportunity to come through us and go out to pursue their studies in universities."

He added that FODE and vocational colleges are no longer second opportunities.They provide the same privileges as universities.

Under Uplinking, the college is creating Memorandums of Understanding or relationships with universities and other stakeholders.

Currently, the college has created an MOU with Divine Word University to help the students achieve the three years National Qualification Framework.

The program assists the students progress from level 1 certificate to diploma, degree, masters and even doctorate.

A similar MOU was recently signed with Ramu NiCo.

Alex Paira, a member of the college's Governing Council applauded Mr Pariwa and his government for honouring the commitment.

He said, "Your commitment to Madang Tech is now becoming obvious that you are serious, unlike other MPs who made commitments but never came back. So we at Madang Tech, we just have to make sure we do our part."

Mr Paira urged the college to be accountable, stressing that K500, 000 is a lot of money.