Headmaster: Overcrowding a concern

 By ELIAS LARI

THE national government’s free education policy is causing overcrowding in a number of classrooms, a school headmaster in Western Highlands says.

Many parents who could not afford to send their children to school in the past enrolled them because it was free.

Tambul High School headmaster James Pini said they were finding it hard to accommodate the increase in the number of students.

He said one Grade 10 class had 60 students which was a big concern. 

The normally accepted ratio is one teacher to between 30 and 40 students in a class.

Pini said they planned to build more classrooms to break up the big classes.

“I thank the national government for introducing the free education policy because it is giving a chance to Papua New Guineans to access education.

“But many schools are experiencing infrastructure development problems because of it,” Pini said.

Pini said most schools in the country would be facing the same problem.

Pini said classrooms and dormitories were the main problems.