District buys tickets to take students home

THE Nipa-Kutubu district development authority has bought tickets for 23 students at a private institution in Port Moresby to return home.
The students were studying at Asia Pacific Applied Social Economic and Technical Studies.
The students claimed there were 50 of them and they want to hear from MP Jeffery Komal on the agreement made with the institution which allowed them to study there.
The students said they were most likely to be excluded from the school due to non-payments of school fees.
However, Komal said the actual number of student was 23 and the district had to buy their return tickets and they will wait in the village for six months.
“The DDA will give first priority to them next year by sending them to some of the recognised colleges in the country,” Komal said.
“DDA decided to unplug them from the institute because the fees were too expensive and it was not clear if the institute was recognised by the government.”
Komal said that, for example, a boarding student attending Mendi School of Nursing paid K8000 for the year while a boarding student at Apasets paid about K18,000, which the DDA did not agree with.
Komal said the DDA was committed to building the human resources of the district and the students being recalled would get first chance next year.