Students poorly prepared to enter universities: Ogio

By JULIA DAIA BORE
MINISTER for Higher Education, Science and Technology Michael Ogio has said that there are weaknesses in the way Secondary and high schools throughout the country were inadequately preparing the nation’s students to go into universities.
He said PNG universities’ assessment systems were not uniform and this resulted in students’ academic performance and their increasing inability to maintain government scholarships given to them.
He said if these discrepancies were properly worked out to the students, they would successfully continue to the completion of their studies without dropping out after their first or second semesters.
Mr Ogio pointed these out over the National Broadcasting Commission talk-back programme last Monday evening.
Mr Ogio said students were not properly prepared to go into higher educational institutions.
“High schools do not adequately prepare students to go into universities and this makes students “worried” that they cannot continue into higher education or complete their programmes they were signed up for at our universities,” he said.
Mr Ogio spoke in tok pisin during the NBC talk-back show hosted by announcer Memafu Kapera.
Mr Ogio also said universities did not assess students’ academic status in uniformity.
His statement was later elaborated by Dr Pongie Kitchawen, Office of Higher Education’s acting director of institutional development that the University of PNG (UPNG) graded its students’ academic status using the five-pointer system, while the University of Technology used the percentage system and the Office of Higher Education (OHE) used the four-pointer system, when granting scholarships.
He further stated that the higher school certificate’s Graded “A” would be rated as a “B”equivalent by PNG’s universities.
Minister Ogio said that these were some of the major problems contributing to disgruntled students and how they were graded and granted scholarships.
Mr Ogio also admitted that Government scholarships being granted to students had its problems for both the new and continuing students, as a result of the above stated discrepancies.
The minister, however, stated in a lighter note that the Office of Higher Education in consultation with the existing universities and other tertiary institutions was well into improving the existing universities’ deteriorating facilities and other infrastructures at these institutions.
Mr Ogio added that many of these institutional buildings and infrastructures were very old and totally run-down.