Central students to return home

MORE than 40 students from Central studying at the University of Goroka will be evacuated to Port Moresby today, Central Governor Kila Haoda says.
He said information received indicated that the intensity of the standoff between factions of the students body could impact on the students and that they needed to be evacuated immediately.
Haoda said the students were safe and being cared for by a university staff within the Goroka campus.
He said a number of Central students had travelled to Lae to avoid the confrontation and their flight arrangements would be made by their parents and guardians.
“Only those 40 plus students currently on the ground will be put on the plane at 10am bound for Port Moresby,” Haoda said.
“I wish to assure all the parents that our children will be arriving today.
“I met with all the Central MPs yesterday and we decided that the safety and wellbeing of our children is of importance so we had to collectively make this arrangement.”
He added that the provincial administration and MPs would meet the students’ travel costs back to Goroka when classes resumed.
Meanwhile, Haoda appealed to Central students at the University of Papua New Guinea to return to classes.
He also urged Central students at other tertiary intuitions to remain calm and concentrate on their studies.
It is understood that tensions boiled over among students over whether to continue their boycott of classes.
The situation rose when there was disagreement between those who wanted to resume class and those who wanted to continue the boycott. The Simbu and Eastern Highlands (lower highlands part) students wanted to resume class while higher higher highlands want to with the boycott.