BSP lights up Nawai High School

By JIMMY KALEBE
BANK South Pacific, a major financial institution in the country, has over the years since 2009, has been involved in giving back to communities and institutions through its community project initiative.
Through this initiative the bank believes it gives back to the community as a way of appreciation for the support it receives over the years.
Since the beginning in 2009, BSP bank has initiated and implemented projects in several communities, government institutions and not-for-profit organisations in support for their operations around the country.
Last weekend, in Nawaeb district of Morobe, Nawai Lutheran High School witnessed a handover ceremony when BSP Lae Main Market branch handed over a completed project on solar lighting installation to some of the school’s buildings.
Prior to that, Buang High School in Bulolo district also was a recipient of solar light installation by the Bulolo branch of BSP.
Speaking during the handover at NLHS on Saturday, Lae main market BSP branch manager Josephine Komoru said BSP community project initiative since its inception, has contributed towards serving communities in the province.
She said for this year, BSP under its theme Rural Lighting, has chosen NLHS as the recipient and has completed the project over the last three weeks.
“It is not by mistake when we chose this school. Over the years this school has experienced disruptions to its power supply. Hence, this contributes to the delay and setbacks the school’s administration also affects students’ studies,” Komoru said.
“It is now up to the students and teachers to make good use of the system that is up and running now to help in areas of need,” she added.
BSP project coordinator Lionel Kamiak during the handover ceremony announced that the project cost K30,000.
The solar lightings were installed at the library, the main administration building, students’ mess, ablution blocks and the girls’ dormitory.
Kamiak said BSP has a set budget every year for such initiatives to support government as well as non-governmental organisations and communities in their operations.
NLHS since its establishment in 2004 has been using an old generator set given by the Nawaeb District Development Authority.
Over time this generator has faced mechanical faults and its fuel consumption has become so high the school was unable to use it.
Transportation is another problem faced by the school. It now depends on hire of vehicles to transport materials and for purposes. Hiring of these vehicles has also had a huge dent to the school budget.
Currently, this school is the only premier educational institution in the district with six Grade nine and six Grade 10 classes and over 700 students and a staff strength of 20. One quarter of the teachers live outside of the school campus.
The school is located 25km away from Lae city.
Head teacher Gobuta Kosieng said despite it being very close to Lae, it still lacks in building infrastructure.
“Two Grade nines are still using the mess for classes while the other is using the home economic sbuilding for classes,” he said.
The latest completed double classroom, which according to Kosieng, was built using untreated timbers and could not last for long.
Over the years since its establishment, this school has no permanent administration building and is using a section of the double classroom as its admin block.
He said NLHS has a zero-tolerance stand on student fights.
“When a student is involved in such a situation, they face expulsion. That is why over the years, we do not have such situations and we maintain discipline.”
The school is a feeder school to Bumayong, Busu and Lae secondary schools with nearly half of the students making it to Grade 11 at the end of each year.