PM clarifies on school subsidy

PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare has explained that his promise for the additional K100 million to education was not meant to provide for “free education”.
The cabinet meeting in Wewak had agreed for the additional funding promised by Sir Michael on March 4 when he visited Simbu province.
He said the money was for education subsidy and “not free education” as wrongly portrayed by the media.
During his farewell dinner at the Divine Word University’s Kaindi campus last Thursday, Sir Michael explained that the funding proposal for the one-off education subsidy was now the responsibility of the Department of Education to work out mechanics on how it would be spent.
In Simbu, he had said: “I am making this proposal as we now have money to spend and we must at least take some burden off from the parents so that they have more time to raise funds for their children next year.
“This allocation of K100 million will mean that if the school fees are K100 then the Government will pay K80 and the parents will pay K20. This will assist parents with the first part of the payment whilst they continue to raise funds for the following years,” Sir Michael said.
The Prime Minister explained to the people that the K100 million for the education subsidies that the National Executive Council would allocate comes from the abandoning of the PNG-Queensland gas pipeline project.
“With the decision to abandon the PNG to Queensland Gas pipeline, the Government has K700 million doing nothing. Why should we have money sitting in trust accounts in Waigani?
“Those monies should be used for development purposes and investing in our children’s education should be our number one priority,” the Prime Minister said.
“We are seeing the fruits of the Government the people have given mandate to lead and to remain in office for the full five years.
“Because of the political stability, the country is now facing a windfall and we must assist when there is money especially with our human resources,” Sir Michael said in Kundiawa.
 

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