By JOEL HAMAGO
DWU JOURNALISM
STUDENT
THIS is a critical time of the year, when parents and guardians dig deep into their pockets or seek ways to pay school fees.
It seems the cost of education in PNG has sabotaged the future of our children. Brilliant minds are denied the opportunity to show their full potential. Can we blame those contemplating education for thinking that the struggle is beyond them?
There is another factor where the avenues to earn income are almost impossible and there are complex barriers preventing people achieving their goals.
I visited a village over the holidays and felt the struggle simple village people have to endure. There, I discovered that only four children attended the local community school which is a great distance over meandering creeks and mountains from their village Seiyom. I spent four days in Seiyom situated deep in the heart of the Sumoro range in Aitape, West Sepik province.
I talked with Vincent Lopo, the man responsible for getting those children to school, and he agreed to take me to his village. The journey began at the emerging light of the day. I made sure that I had packed enough rations to supplement what the host family would provide. We rode in a company vehicle to Rakole village, over 30 kilometers from Aitape town. To get there, we had to travel on the old Damansara logging road. The road was initially planned and constructed in 1996 for harvesting timber. However, it was never completed and is now in a state of disrepair. Overgrown vines and creepers occupy almost the entire breadth of the road with the culverts in imminent danger of collapse. We couldn’t go any further by car past Rakole.
Standing on a hilltop, he pointed to the blue mountains and said: “Seiyom is beneath those blue Sumoro mountains. If we maintain a steady pace, we’ll reach the village before dusk.”
I immediately became aware of what I was involved in. I realized that the journey by foot would be long and difficult. Fire smoke bellowed into the misty clouds and the chilly mountain breeze made me wish I had not asked to make this trip in the first place. He warned that we will only stop for rest twice throughout the entire journey.
The only way to get to Seiyom from Rakole is by foot, going upstream of Raihu River, across countless river bends and wading through swirling river currents. Gazing over to the hill slopes, I noticed the oil palms planted by Damansara now overgrown, feeding wild pigs with their ripe nuts. As we journeyed further my toes began to grow numb and the muscles felt weak. Smooth pebbles now became sharp and coarse while rocks and boulders became rough and slippery. Vincent kept reminding me to avoid shrubs growing near the riverside in case I got bitten by a poisonous snake.
We had to climb over huge logs that had been washed away by previous heavy floods and were now strewn across the river bed. At times, we had to follow bush tracks into murky swamps and up slippery hills. I marveled at the gigantic ancient trees that stood proud in the forest. There was fresh evidence of wild pigs and cassowaries which indicated they’ve been using the same track just before we came along. They roamed the forest in total liberty unperturbed by intruders. I had to slow down many times to pluck out leeches that attached themselves to my legs and feet, sucking at my blood. When we finally arrived at Seiyom, the sun had disappeared behind the mountains. It was a five and half hours walk. My calf and thigh muscles hurt terribly and I had developed blisters on the soles of both feet.
The soreness healed faster than I thought and so in the next couple of days, I joined the village boys roaming the forest, hunting animals and foraying birds’ nests. It was a thrilling adventure. However, we had to avoid sites that are taboo for strangers like me. According to the local people, it will invite the wrath of the spirits.
“We have strong beliefs in spirits; therefore we do not want to stir them up. We want to live in harmony with them. If we aren’t careful, we will bring misfortune on ourselves,” they warned.
I was overwhelmed by their friendliness and hospitality. Random interviews with some of them revealed that their highest level of formal education attained was only grade three. It was obvious that their level of literacy was low.
These young people have not benefited in any way from the promises for universal primary education. They have been ignored, neglected and forgotten. They are victims to empty promises made by vote seeking politicians for better and equal distribution of government services. They are people who have been deceived.
They identified their priority need for a government service to connect them by network of roads. Vincent showed me his cocoa plantation. Ripe cocoa pods had all gone black and were now rotting away on the trees. There was no longer an enthusiasm in growing cocoa and coffee. People had showed interest in vanilla but it has now evaporated.
No one is interested in cash cropping. How can we transport the crops to the buyers?” he lamented.
“Sick patients and women in labour often die on stretchers on the way to the hospital,” said Vincent.
“Their lives could only be saved if our village is connected to a road network. My wife almost died of child labour three years ago, but our determination to walk non stop saved her,” he said.
Seiyom villagers who died in hospitals or towns cannot be taken back to the village. They are buried in cemeteries elsewhere or in mission cemeteries.
With a deep sigh he said, “Seiyom was once a big village. However, the bulk of the population had migrated to areas where they could easily benefit from government services.”
“Their children have a better access to education and some of their parents are employed which means they can afford to pay school fees. But for those of us back in the village, our only way to earn income is by taking leafy vegetables, wild fowl eggs and smoked meat to the market in town. These are light, easy to carry but have very little cash returns.”
“I don’t know how to save for school fees for my children while at the same time buying basic household necessities. My eldest son would soon transfer to do his upper primary in a town school; K200 for school fee is a hurdle for me.”
Vincent had no significant education and besides coming from an area where advancement in education is not a reality yet he has the enthusiasm for his own plus other village children to receive better education.
The only way forward for development and improving the lives of these people is through education. So close to government services in Aitape, yet forgotten and neglected for 32 years since independence. It seems that education in Papua New Guinea will only be for the wealthy people and certainly not for the forgotten ones.

Previous | Back to Top | Next