Big push for education

By PETER WARI
PRIME Minister James Marape says a lack of formal employment or formal engagement in the mainstream economy is a common issue in the country.
He said the majority of Papua New Guineans were not formally engaged and this was the challenge that he was faced with and his Government was trying to improve and expand education so all citizens had access to it.
Marape made the remarks at Hoiebia Secondary School, Tebi local level government, in Tari, on Tuesday.
The school and the United church mission established before independence had stayed untouched by tribal fights through the efforts of the local community.
“The United Nation is now strongly supporting education, peace and unity work and helping development activities, and people of Hela should look at ways to get education or get involved in agricultural activities,” he said.
The prime minister said there had been many free education policies that had freed parents from struggling to earn money to send their children to school, however, the downside was that the quality of the education was affected and his government was looking at improving standards.
“In my school days parents struggled to pay our school fees, there was no such thing as free education and today the free education policy has produced many lazy parents,” he said.
Marape said another important issue he was pursuing was to ensure owners of resource were benefiting from what was being taken from their land, with the country also benefiting from its share.
Hela Governor Philip Undialu told students and parents that the provincial government had subsidised school fees with K6 million budgeted for school fees for elementary to secondary schools and K8 million for tertiary institutions.
He said education and agriculture were priorities.