| Business |
Finding solutions the Nupuru way
MOST of our readers will not have
heard of Nupuru Primary School. That’s because there has been
little reason in the past to single out this medium sized school
from hundreds of others that dot our provinces.
But that situation has changed and changed in a most positive way.
And it will be the 500 students and the 14 teachers who will
initially benefit from the latest development.
What’s so significant about Nupuru?
The answer is the involvement of parents in the welfare of their
children expressed through their willingness to assist the school.
Nupuru is in the Lufa district of the Eastern Highlands.
It’s a populous area and a fertile one; like many similar
districts, it has a burgeoning population growth. That means
there’s a pressing need for upgraded education for a constantly
growing population of school-age children.
The parents of Nupuru have seized the challenge and worked
together to construct a school library.
That’s a new development for Nupuru and the delighted headmaster
says the new facility means his Grade 7 and 8 students will be on
the same footing as those in other provincial primary schools.
There are many positive points in this simple story.
The new development has come about because the parents have
identified a need and have given their own time and effort to meet
that need.
This is in the best traditions of the parents and citizens groups
that work hard in many of our urban and rural schools.
This kind of effort does not happen by accident.
From our observation, it’s generally the result of a core of
parents who can see pressing needs and who are determined to
respond positively.
They in turn spark enthusiasm among other parents and even
difficult projects and complex challenges are faced and overcome,
to the benefit of the whole school community.
Then there is the question of the attitude of teachers and
particularly the principal and his senior colleagues.
It seems to us that one of the main functions of principals is to
inspire and encourage those around them to set high goals and to
aim only for the best.
We’ve seen the difference such a principal can make to a school –
a lacklustre organisation with apathetic and disinterested
teachers cannot hope to encourage a positive reaction on the part
of parents.
As with so many other enterprises, the strength and direction of a
school is to a large extent determined by the character and drive
displayed by the person in charge, the head teacher.
The library cost about K21,000. The generation of that sum was
also a united effort, bringing together funds from the Lufa local
level government, the local MP and AusAID’s basic education
development programme.
This type of development is now becoming more common in PNG. While
the media and the public are naturally interested in major
projects involving millions of kina, we also need to take note of
smaller developments such as Nupuru’s new parent-built library.
This fine achievement also provides an answer to the urban-born
and raised elite who can only see a future delineated by computers
and unlimited wallowing in cyberspace.
Libraries have been the traditional source of educational research
for generations of students. Books have provided the open sesame
to unimagined worlds.
The world of the internet provides its own spin on those worlds
and its own avenues of discovery. But it is nonsense to see the
two great sources of wisdom, books and technology, as mutually
exclusive.
The great promise of tomorrow is a marriage of both these
limitless resources; humanity will be doubly enriched by the
interaction that results.
There are far too many schools without libraries. Successive
governments have failed to provide money to maintain, let alone
boost the number and quality of libraries.
The do-it-yourself answer devised by the Nupuru Primary School and
its parents and principal provides an achievable alternative. We
commend those parents and we urge any readers with up-to-date
reference and other books to consider donating some of them to
Nupuru.
Let’s help them grow their present stock of 200 books to a more
realistic number for their 500 students.
 
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