Bad roads keeping Okapa pupils from reaching their goals

Services in the Okapa district of Eastern Highlandsd are being hampered by the deteriorating state of roads, a school principal says.
Okapa Secondary School pricipal Simeon Kibeto says his school can produce the best brains in the country if the road to his school is fixed.
The school is located about 20 minutes’ drive from the main Okapa ring road.
Students and teachers have to walk for nearly two hours from the school to get to the main road.
When it rains and the road is impassable, the students have to carry food, building materials and supplies.
Kibeto said the call to fix the roads has fallen on deaf ears.
“Is there any Okapas in the Government bureaucracy? This year I’m crying for the road again. Who will listen? Who is responsible? Who will help?”
Last Friday 49 students graduated from the school.
The school principal said Okapa was the last district in Eastern Highlands to get a secondary school but they would prove to the nation that Okapa was not last.
“Though we have setbacks in development indices, Okapa has always and will continue to produce quality human resources for this nation,” Kibeto said.
“This is our legacy and we always embrace and pass on to our future generations.
“Okapa has been labelled as a ‘failed, remote, underdeveloped and dreadful’ district. Such opinions are healthy for us. They are stepping stones to our progress and prosperity.
“We are a unique people – always hardworking, struggling, striving, never complaining and never giving up. That’s why we can produce the best brains in the country.”
Kensol Rui, the executive director of the University of Goroka’s Institute of Flexible and Flexible Learning, was the guest of honour at the graduation.