Concerns over school fights

 SCHOOL fights are continuing in Lae and education officials have blamed them on the recruitment of new members into “generation groups” at the affected schools.

Morobe’s senior standards officer Gibson Dom said a deputy principal at Bugandi Secondary School sustained injuries after he tried to stop a fight between students last Friday.

On Monday another fight broke out at Bugandi and on Tuesday students at Bumayong Lutheran Secondary School clashed.

Dom said he received reports of two other secondary schools where students planned to fight but he could not confirm it.

 “Time has become the greatest enemy because term three is just nine weeks, term four with seven weeks is very short this year because of the PNG Games in Lae, and grade tens have exactly 8 weeks before they do their final examinations,” Dom said.

“It will come to a stage where teachers will stop teaching in protest, teachers are also becoming victims but we cannot allow this generation to overrule our authority,” Dom, a former high school teacher, said.

After repeated peace ceremonies and reconciliations, Dom suggested that:

• Staff and school administrations to seriously and aggressively deal with students discipline problems;
• parents and families to provide the love and care to students at the home environments;
• students to seriously take ownership of their education; and,
• Implementation of the first reports by schools involved in the 

last major fight at Eriku which prompted the provincial executive council to resolve that offending students and irresponsible head teachers, schools board members and provincial education board members be terminated.

Meanwhile, provincial education minister Andrew Gena said the situation was “out of control”.

He reported that a fight occurred at the Markham Valley High School.

Gena reiterated the decision of the provincial executive council to expel offending students and termination of incompetent head teachers, school board members and provincial education board members.