Senior students stage protest march
By SENT TIMBI
Grade 12 students from the Mt Hagen Park Secondary in Western Highlands province staged a protest march yesterday in front of the provincialEducation secretary’s office demanding that they be provided a physics teacher.
The students threatened to withdraw from studies this year if no teacher is found.
They said they would repeat the grade next year.
Since classes started eight weeks ago, they have been without a physics teachers.
Assistant education secretary Hans Gima and Martin Marr, the superintendent for secondary schools in the province, received the students at the Kapal Haus.
About 60 students staged the march to express their concern, as the completion of Grade 12 Physics is a prerequisite for entry into many science–related courses in tertiary institutions, which these students will be applying for at the end of the year.
Mr Gima told the students that a physics teacher Peter McBain assigned to the school has left to take up a job oversea but he would try his best to find a replacement.
He said that if Mr McBain had informed them about his intention to take up new job overseas they would have found a new teacher for them sooner.
“It is not something intentionally done to harm your learning,” Mr Gima said.
Student representative Gawa Osmond said they were worried the absence of a physics teacher would seriously affect their academic results and disadvantage them at the end of the year.
Mr Osmond said because physics is demanding, missing eight weeks was already too much for them. He said the board of the school should have done something earlier instead of waiting till the last minute.
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