Gulf must prioritise human resource development

GULF must develop its own human resources by investing and training young men and women through universities, teachers colleges and other vocational and technical skills training colleges.
The division of education in Gulf may have been training primary school teachers and elementary school teachers on a yearly basis but it needs to expand its boundaries to include other technical training for locals, sponsoring more young men and women with good grades into universities, vocational and technical skills training colleges.
The teachers who have taught for more than 20 or so years with certificates or diplomas, must also have their qualifications upgraded so that they are qualified with the relevant qualifications to teach students at elementary, primary, high school, vocational and secondary schools today.
Gulf has only two districts, Kerema and Kikori. Funding human resources development should not be the problem. Mismanagement and abuse of funding by those in positions of authority is the problem.
Our elected leaders and people in positions of administration and authority must be thinking strategically for developmental challenges.
If we do not have a pool of trained and technically-skilled human resource in the province, where would we draw the workers to develop the districts, province and a proposed Papua LNG Project.
The comments by Kerema MP Richard Mendani in The National (Jan 17) were good but a sad.
He said: “One of the major challenges we are facing now in Kerema District is that our people are not that skilled and trained professionally to actively participate”.
He said he would invest and develop human resources by training them so that they could become skilled workers. The idea is good but I disagree with the outcome.
Why haven’t the Kerema MP and Kikori MP sponsored and invested in a lot of our young men and women. They could have sponsored them into vocational and technical skills training colleges so that upon graduating, they could walk into the job market as technically-skilled professionals.
Gulf needs trained and skilled human resources in management, leadership, administration and technically skilled people to occupy jobs at districts and provincial levels.

BK Dara
Baimuru, Gulf