Classes at Passam deferred

By GABRIEL FITO
EAST Sepik education adviser Joseph Auli said last Friday that due to the appalling state of the facilities at Passam National High School, the start of its academic year has been deferred to next month.
Auli said until then, major renovation work would be conducted on its dormitory, ablution and sanitation facilities.
Classes at Passam did not start yesterday for the 2011 academic year.
The dormitories for both male and female students were all rundown while power cuts and disruption to the school’s water pump were listed among major problems that could hold students’ learning at ransom. 
He said even though the landowners had given their assurance for classes to resume, the deferral had been anticipated by the Education Department.
The department had already made available K2 million for major renovation work on the dormitories, specialist classrooms, other amenities and restoring of electricity and water supply.
Auli said work on improving the infrastructure would take three weeks and classes would resume thereafter.
Teachers had all arrived and settled in with no major hiccups as their houses had been repaired.
Meanwhile, Auli appealed to parents to pay up their fees during this time.
He also appealed to parents not to worry about the three weeks that their children would miss classes as teachers would come up with internal arrangements to make up for this.
Work on the rundown infrastructure is expected to start this week.