Education remains company’s priority

OIL Search has invested more than K16 million in its education sponsorship programme since 1996, benefiting more than 2,000 students from Hides, Kutubu, Moran, Gobe and Kikori.
The largest share of funding goes to covering university fees which averages almost K200,000 annually.
Students from the project impact areas attending vocational, technical, secretarial, teaching, health/medical and theology training can also receive annual funding for school fees.
Medical doctor and senior lecturer of the University of Papua New Guinea Medical Faculty (UPNG MedFac), Dr Phili Mapira, is a former recipient of the Oil Search scholarship.
Mapira attended Koroba Secondary School in Hela and went on to study medicine and surgery at UPNG from 2000 to 2005.
She returned to her old school in Koroba as a guest speaker during the grade 10 and 12 graduation ceremony where she challenged students to commit to learning if they wanted to be successful in life.
She also took the opportunity to acknowledge Oil Search as a continuing sponsor of the school’s academic dux awards and prizes which includes laptops, dictionaries and scientific calculators.
The initiative underpins the education sponsorship programme and is run by the Oil Search community affairs team in Hides to recognise and reward high performing students from Koroba and Tari secondary schools.
“As a former graduate of the school, I thank you for being a partner in human resource development through the education sponsorship programme. My (academic) success can be attributed to your support,” Mapira said.
Oil Search senior community affairs officer Kevin Wanima said the Oil Search Academic Dux Awards not only recognised and reward students, it also helped motivate others to work hard.
He encouraged students to exercise discipline and to use their knowledge to better themselves.
The Oil Search community affairs education sponsorship programme currently focuses on education, health, business/finance and technical courses, engineering and theology.