Adviser reveals many parents have not paid support fees

By JIMMY KALEBE
EVEN though the Coronavirus (Covid-19) has affected education in Morobe, the year has been good so far, however, many parents have not paid support fees, an official says.
Morobe acting education adviser Keith Tangui said despite the provincial education board’s approval of the support fees, many parents had not paid them.
He said schools had been directed not to send students home, however, parents were not fulfilling their responsibility by paying the support fee component.
“They have to pay their component as approved by the education authority in the province,” he said.
“We can send these students home, but then, we’ll be depriving them of their right to be educated.”
Meanwhile, Tangui reported that six teachers had died last month while one died at the beginning of this month.
He described the deaths as a huge loss to the education division, but said their problem now was repatriating the bodies to their home provinces and districts.
Tangui said the Department of Education’s allocation to the province for such matters was K100,000.
“Teachers in the province are dying at an alarming rate,” he said.
“We, at the division level find it hard to repatriate these bodies back to their places of origin.”
Tangui said the latest death was a male primary school teacher who died at Angau Hospital after waiting to be served for two hours.
“This should be a wake-up call to doctors and nurses working at Angau to consider the urgency of the type of sickness a person has and those that travel in from remote areas.”
Attempts to get comments from Morobe health authority chief executive officer Dr Kipas Binga were unsuccessful.