Classroom burning due to policy

 THE government’s tuition fee free policy has been blamed for the burning down of a Grace Memorial Secondary School classroom last week.
The suspected arson occurred in the early hours of last Tuesday and saw the Morobe Mining Joint Venture-built classroom turn to ash within 30 minutes in Wau, Bulolo, Morobe.
School board of governors chairman Wagi Kukubol said investigation by the school and district administration identified an aggrieved former student as the prime suspect.
He has been apprehended and remains in police custody in Wau.
Kukubol said the free tuition policy made education compulsory and free which  caused an  unprecedented influx of children into schools but was not directly complemented by increased space through more classrooms, teachers, materials, equipment and teachers’ and boarding  houses.
He said the school had a student population of 1,700 and a teacher-student ratio of 1:60, while 200 boarders were cramped up into dormitories with space for only 70.
Kukubol said the suspect was a Grade 10 student last year who was unsuccessful in making it to Grade 11 but argued that the policy gave him the right to continue education. He had been turned away because he did not qualify.
The suspect made an earlier attempt to get registered and when he was refused he made threats of harming the deputy head teacher with a weapon and was again refused.