Koiari Park joins Adventist system

The National Education

A SECONDARY school located outside Port Moresby has experienced significant developments since its establishment four years ago.
The Koiari Park Adventist Secondary School is a new addition to the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s education system and is situated within the boundaries of Pacific Adventist University’s Koiari Park campus.
According to Russell Wobruba, the communications director for of the SDA church, the Adventist education system was founded on the church’s ethos of educating students for service both in this life and the eternal life to come, which was a major Adventist biblical belief.
Wobruba said initially it was the innovation of the Pacific Adventist University’s School of Education as a demonstration school for the teacher trainees who could do their practice teaching as part of the Bachelor of Education degree programme.
Koiari Park first opened its doors on Feb 27, 2013 utilising the abandoned Tanubada Dairy Milk factory buildings, now part of PAU campus.
The old dusty buildings were converted into classrooms and 128 grade nine students were ushered in, though the school was unregistered with the Department of Education then.
Four teachers were quickly employed to teach these students.
In the meantime NCD Governor Powes Parkop, funded a steel framed classroom complex with 12 offices and 24 classrooms at its current location in mid-2013.
It was completed in mid-June 2014, and was officially opened by Education Minister Nick Kuman.
In 2014, the then NCD school inspector, the late Boi Degemba approved the school’s official registration as a high school, allowing the pioneer grade 10s of Koiari Park Adventist Secondary School to legally participate in its first ever grade 10 national examinations in the same year.
Wobruba said the school since then, has grown and it now has 920 students.
It has been upgraded to level nine secondary school status and enrolled its first grade 11 class of 150 students in 2017, who will be the school’s pioneer grade 12 students, passing out next year.
Koiari Park Adventist Secondary school continues to experienced significant developments and changes, with five  new staff houses under construction, conversion of two classrooms to wet and dry science laboratories, 20 new Teaching Service Commission positions awarded and many more developments are in store for the future.