Many shed tears as they bade farewell to the longest serving and the last of the expatriate lecturer at the college that day. Head of School, Mr Premalal Hapuarachchi left the college and PNG after 27 years, for Australia with his family. Mr Hapuarachchi came to PNG in 1988 as a United Nations volunteer to teach at the Post and Telecommunication Training College which was established a year early to train the manpower needs of the Post and Telegraphs Department, the predecessor to the Post and Telecommunication Corporation. He was one of 40 expatriate lecturers that were recruited to teach the students who were enrolled from high schools to learn news skills and knowledge in telecommunication skills to work with the Post and Telegraphs Department. When his contract with the UN expired, the Post and Telecommunication Corporation recruited him and he stayed on, moving from lecturer up the ladder until he became Head of School, responsible for the curriculum and courses, a position he held until his departure. In his farewell speech, Principal Sidia Pokopia paid tribute to Mr Hapuarachchi for his contributions to the college over the years. “You were instrumental in the development of the college. You did a lot of work to bring in the people from outside to study at the college. “There was opposition but you believed in what you wanted done and we did it successfully,” Mr Pokopia said when referring to the user pay policy applied at the college today. Initially the college enrolled students from high school and PTC, the predecessor to Telikom, sponsored the students to undertake their studies from 1987 to 1998. In 1998, this was phased out because the college had trained enough manpower for PTC to absorb and the college was left in a situation where it was going to end up with empty classrooms and lecturers with no jobs. Something had to be done to fill up the classrooms again and it was at that time that the Governing Council of the College met to decide the fate of the college. At that meeting Mr Hapuarachchi brought up the user pay policy at a council meeting, which was endorsed and today, organizations in the telecommunication industries and students from secondary schools pay their fees and undertake the courses. “I knew that there were organizations in the country that would still use the college to take advantage of the training programs offered and they would pay the fees to upgrade the skills and knowledge of their employees,” Mr Hapuarachchi said. “I am happy that it is a success,” he added. Since 1992, the college took on the City & Guild training program to complement the other training programs it was offering and also to meet industry needs. Mr Pokopia said Telikom will miss the services provided by Mr Hapuarachchi and his leadership. “I will miss him, the college will miss him and Telikom will miss him. I thank his family for allowing him to spend half his life with the people of Papua New Guinea,” Mr Pokopia said. “Thank you and I wish you luck in your future endeavors,” the principal said. Mr Hapuarachchi said he and his family would take away very fond memories of the college and PNG. “My daughters have been taking a lot of pictures of the places we have traveled in PNG. We will keep those pictures to remind us of you all,” an emotional Mr Hapuarachchi told the students and staff. In his parting words, Mr Hapuarachchi urged the students to do well in their studies and behave well for there were a lot of job opportunities in PNG, now that new companies were entering the market. “You can work with Telikom or Digicel or the other new operator entering the competition. Strive to be the best and work to get to the top,” he said. Manager Human Resource with Telikom PNG Ltd. Kevin Wala and Don Tore of the Networking Division thanked Mr Hapuarachchi on behalf of Telikom. Staff and students also took time to thank the outgoing friend, lecturer and his family for their contributions to the college and for what they did in their lives.

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