Province to manage fee

EAST Sepik is the sixth province given the responsibility to manage its government tuition fee subsidy policy (GTFS) provision.
The Education Department and the East Sepik government signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to effect the decision last week.
The agreement was a Government decision, directing the department to decentralise and manage the subsidy cash for infrastructure and teaching and learning components.
Under that decision, five provinces started the process of decentralisation which will see those provinces manage their components.
They are Enga, New Ireland, Morobe, East New Britain and Milne Bay.
Under the agreement, the two administrations would work together to implement the decentralisation this year for East Sepik.
When the Marape-Steven Government came into office last May, it reviewed the last Government’s tuition fee free policy and made education a shared responsibility among the Government, parents, churches, non-government organisations and local communities.
The management and implementation of the GTFS policy switches from the Education Department to the East Sepik administration to facilitate payment, monitor implementation and report on achievements.
It is a shift from free education to shared responsibility to compel parents and communities to plough the soil and work hard.
Education Minister and Wosera-Gawi MP Joseph Yopyyopy said a way forward for PNG was to do away with the previous government system of creating handout culture that made parents lazy and cut out any other foreign system into the country.