170,000 grade 8 pupils miss out

By DOROTHY MARK
STATISTICS have shown that nearly 170,000 grade 8 students in Madang have been pushed out of school since 1996 when the top-up programme started.
Provincial grade 8 examination coordinator Staal Columbus said this is because Madang does not have enough high schools to cater for grade 8 students graduating from more than 200 primary schools.
Columbus said this year only 3000 out of 8000 who sat for their exams would secure spaces in high schools while 5000 would return home because of lack of space in high schools.
“Since the top programme was introduced in 1996 more grade 8 students were pushed out by the system and considered failures,” Columbus said.
“So you calculate the numbers since the top up system was introduced 34 years ago and find out how many of our children have been pushed out,” he said.
Madang provincial education director Moses Sariki was very frustrated yesterday when The National interviewed him on the issue.
Sariki said Madang does not have enough high schools to accommodate the increasing number of students pushed out every year.
“I made submissions after submissions for Madang provincial executive council to endorse and seek funds to build new high schools but I am hitting brick walls,” he said.
He said certain primary schools in the province were elevated into high schools but lack proper high school facilities.