Education Resource Centre set for completion this month

By ROSELYN ELLISON
Construction work on a building for Education Resource Centre in Rabaul, East New Britain, is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
This was revealed by Rabaul education coordinator Markus Tipepe over the weekend.
Tipepe said the building was located at the Rabaul headquarter at Kurakakaul, and would provide pathways for students to further their education.
Tipepe said this project was approved last year by the Rabaul District Development Authority (DDA) and was awarded to a local construction company, Bela Investment Ltd, at a contract value of K1, 483 049.15.
“The foundation works started in April this year with an implementation timeframe of five months which is expected to be completed by end of this month,” he said.
Tipepe said it was an important project for the district as it would provide a second chance opportunity for students in the district. “The education resource centre will include the following services; early childhood centre, Flexible Open Distance Education (FODE), upgrading centres for higher institutions, benchmarking facility as well as e-Library,” he said.
Rabaul district administrator Peter Lapim said such a project was a first for the province because the building would be a resourceful avenue which will be providing various pathways for students who did not make it through the formal education.
“I believe in second chances and we should do that to our students as there are a lot of them just roaming around our communities,” he said.
“This is either because the formal education system had failed them or there are limited opportunities or they are faced with financial constraints.”
Lapim said the centre would ease some of these issues.
He said however, it was entirely up to individuals to decide and whether they would show commitment or not.
Meanwhile, managing director of Bela Investment Ltd Ben Warmaram said the construction work on the building was 70 per cent complete and they were working around the clock to finish the project by its due date.
Warmaram said the General Election 2022 (GE22) had slowed down the construction, especially with restrictions of payments by the Ombudsman Commission.
“The inflation of prices for construction materials has greatly affected the scope of the contract and that would also result in a variation to the contract amount.”