Call for school fights talks

 By GABRIEL LAHOC

A CALL has been made for a public forum to be held in Lae to discuss school violence in the city.

Rev Elymas Bakung, who last year headed a research study into school violence and cult practices in Lae, said: “This is a strong call for responsible authorities in the Morobe provincial government and the administration to take it on instead of passing the buck around, we have to rescope our mindsets and take a better approach than taking this problem as a law and order problem.” 

Bakung, who is the Lutheran chaplain of the PNG University of Technology, made this appeal following the violent clash between Bugandi and Lae secondary schools, which resulted in the death of one student two weeks ago.

He added that the problem would continue unless it was addressed on a larger scale by all stakeholders.

Bakung said the Evangelical Lutheran church had indicated its interest in hosting the public forum and had notified Lae MP and Community Development, Youth and Religion Minister Loujaya Toni, who sponsored the study. 

“The Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG has indicated that it wants to take it on and host a major forum and involve all responsible stakeholders so that we workout something effective as soon as possible,” he said.

Bakung said the study cost K35,000 and its findings was presented to Toni two months ago.