Compulsory school up to Grade 10 from 2014

 By JAYNE SAFIHAO

EDUCATION for students attending elementary to Grade 10 will be compulsory from next year, says Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

And parents who fail to send their children to school will be charged and taken to court.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill issued the warning while addressing the annual general meeting of the PNG and Solomon Islands Catholic Bishops Conference in Madang last week.

O’Neill, emphasising government’s reforms on education, health, the judiciary and management of the country’s wealth, said it was time to go back to basics.

He said this meant going back to improving and decentralising systems that in the past failed to allow the smooth flow of services.

He said starting next year, parents who did not send their children to school “would be held accountable”.

“We have to get back to the basics.

“We need to adequately train and equip those in the front line who are responsible for the upkeep of the important pillars in our judiciary, health, education, natural resources and economy,” O’Neill said. 

He said the country had surplus wealth but that did not trickle down to the rural areas and nothing tangible came out of it.

“The management of the country’s wealth has gone to the dogs. We have so much wealth but in the last five years we have not built one school, hospital, bridge or road,” he said.

He thanked the Catholic church for its continued service in areas where the government has not provided.

President of the Catholic Bishops Conference for PNGSI, Archbishop John Ribat thanked O’Neill for the K5 million donation to build a new headquarters for the conference in Port Moresby.