‘Government not providing enough’

National, Normal

The only failure in education is the Government because it does not provide enough education opportunities for the children of this country to further their education.
Minister for Education James Marape said this during the opening of the 167th National Education Board meeting and the swearing-in of the members at the Lorengau town market in Manus last week.
He said students, who did not get a space to further their education, must not be branded as failures because the fault was with the Government for not providing enough space for the children in educational institutions.
Mr Marape said his focus as the Minister for Education was on the expansion of Technical Vocational Education training and Community Colleges in the country.
“I want all provinces in the country to have a technical school. The world needs plumbers, welders and tradesman. The LNG project is in the country now and instead of recruiting technical people from other parts of the country we should work towards training our own people to do the work,” Mr Marape said.
The minister also called on parents to prioritise the lives and education of their children by ensuring the children are healthy, have clothes and go to school everyday.
“With the universal basic education (UBE) plan in place, elementary education is free throughout the country so parents and guardians should start saving for the higher education fees for their children,” Mr Marape said.
He said UBE also posed a challenge for the Government and partners in education to ensure that more opportunities were provided in the education system for all children to receive some form of education in line with the National Government’s Vision 2050 for all citizens of this county to be a smart, wise, fair and happy society by 2050.
The secretary for Education, Dr Joseph Pagelio, save during the opening ceremony that despite the criticisms of the education reforms, the outcome based education was not yet fully understood but a lot of its innovations were working.
Dr Pagelio said schools needed to continue with their school learning improvement plans because it had been a success since it was introduced.
Twenty-two members of the National Education Board were sworn in witnessed by the Member for Manus Open Job Pomat and the administrator for Manus province Kulehen Hamou.
The students began the day with a parade in Lorengau town and the opeing and swearing-in was witnessed by the members of the community.