College faces financial crisis

THE Lae Community College in Morobe is unable to complete term four of the school year because of financial constraints. This will affect the final examinations for grades 10, 11 and 12 students in matriculation studies.
The school administration is unable to pay teachers and buy teaching resources and administration consumables.
College staff member Nicky Raka said that the school received K9000 in annual funding from the Morobe provincial education division which was supplemented by fees collected from students.
However, the funds were exhausted in the first three terms and without additional funding the college would not be able to complete the last 10 weeks of the school year.
The community college is a registered study centre of the Education Department’s Flexible Open Distance Education (FODE) programme. It caters for 833 students.
It was established by an act of the Morobe Tutumang in 1987 under the leadership of former premier, the late Utula Samana,  to cater for grade six school leavers who are unable to continue into high schools.
The centre is under the provincial education division and has not benefited from the national government’s tuition fee-free (TFF) programme.
“If provincial education division and its administration are unable to support the LCC then the best option is to privatise the institution and I am willing to help the school for our children’s future,” Raka said.
Since 1988, the school catered for grades 7-10 students until late 1990 when the national Department of Education had a major policy shift.
It now enrolls grades 9-12 school leavers using the FODE curriculum.
“We also cater for elementary school teachers in Lae city by enhancing their capability to attain grade 12 qualifications in line with Department of Education requirements,” Raka said.
The college is today an eye-sore within the heart of the industrial city as the 833 students are taught under a structure with sago-thatched roof.