Principal transferred, locals want him back

LOCALS living near the Mt Hagen city yesterday morning welded the main gate to the Mt Hagen Park Secondary School, which is located in the heart of Mt Hagen city, locking out teachers from gaining entry to begin their 2008 academic year.
The locals welded the gates to the school in the early hours of Monday morning.
Timothy Roika from the Moge Andaaklimb tribesmen led the locals and shut the school gate permanently after he and his colleagues found out that the school’s best principal was posted to another school.
A frustrated Mr Roika told The National yesterday at the school gate that they wanted the school principle Simon Opa to remain back at the school and called on the provincial education authorities to rescind their decision to transfer him out.
“Mr Opa is one of the best principals we ever had because he made the school to be the best in the province and third in the nation in terms of academic output by Grade 12 school leavers this year under his administration,” Mr Roika said.
He said that it was unbecoming of the provincial education authorities to transfer the principal to another school after the officer had only been in the school for just 11 months, adding that it would be proper to move him out to another school after at least three or four years in the institution.
He alleged that the provincial education authorities were just making the transfer out of petty politics and not in the best interest of education in the province.
He said he was venting his frustration by locking the gates of the school and claimed that his actions had the support of all concerned parents and guardians of students from all over the province. He said that parents and students want the best principal for the better administration of their children’s’ education.
“We the nearby tribesmen are not claiming the property of the school as other so called landowners do but we want that best administrator of the school to stay back ,” Mr Roika said.
Teachers who were posted to the Hagen Park Secondary School were yesterday locked outside the school fence and could not access the school to prepare for duties.