Housewife aiming high

By TONY PALME
A 32-year-old housewife and mother of eight is setting her sights on attaining the highest level of education during her lifetime.
Roselyn David Openakail from Sari village in Wabag, Enga, has set the sky as the limit after receiving a certificate in elementary teaching from Enga Teachers’ College on Nov 10.
She also received the college’s leadership award after a year of studies.
Openakail was 10 points short of scooping the Sir Peter Ipatas dux award for academic excellence in elementary teaching. She scored 85 per cent to fall short of the required 95 per cent.
Openakail was among 78 elementary and 80 primary school teacher graduates. She had been a housewife for 10 years after completing Grade 10 at Mt Hagen Secondary School in 2003.
“Life after school for me was just looking after the children and house. I now realise that women and girls have huge potential hidden in them,” Openakail says.
“If they are given the opportunity by their husbands and family to pursue education opportunities, they can achieve great success.”  She is grateful to Governor Ipatas for his vision to transform Enga through education, and the college for accepting her to study at their campus at Irelya, outside Wabag.
“We have a very dynamic principal in Michael Homingu,” Openakail says.
“He is vibrant, functional and very committed. His leadership is second to none. That’s why, being just seven years old and holding its fifth graduation, Enga Teachers’ College is producing the best teachers.”
She plans to teach for a year at Sari Elementary School, while doing her Grades 11 and 12 matriculation at the University of Goroka distance-mode faculty at Wabag.
“As long as I live, I will still complete my diploma and degree and go on to other higher levels of attainment in education,” Openakail says.
She says her husband has been fully supportive of her attending college.
“He hugged me with tears and congratulated me for graduating with a certificate in elementary teaching at Enga Teachers’ College,” Openakail says.
“I thank him. Other men out there must also allow their wives to go to school.”