Mendi school needs classroom

KEMA Primary School in the Lai valley, Southern Highlands’ Mendi electorate, needs K25,000 for a new classroom.
Head teacher Mathew Pore said school facilities were rundown because local MP Pastor Isaac Joseph and the provincial government had largely ignored it since its establishment in 2000.
He said, as a result, the people there did not know the value of education and how it could benefit them and their children.
He said facilities were so bad that children would soon be forced out of classrooms.
He said desks, classrooms, blackboards and houses for teachers were needed.
Pore said in Mt Hagen he walked 5km before boarding a PMV to Mendi to reach Mt Hagen.
He said the SHP education board had recently elevated the school to a top-up but it “is struggling to maintain its education standard”.
Pore said about 12,000 people benefited from the school “and yet there is no form of government support reaching the people”.
He said Joseph and the provincial government should put in a greater effort to help the young generation access to better education.
Pore said Lai valley had been neglected in the last 30 years.
He said the school needed K25,000 to build a new classroom.