First national school arts holiday programme launched in Goroka

 THE National Performing Arts Troupe (NPAT) launched an annual national school holiday programme in Goroka, Eastern Highlands yesterday.

“This is our first annual national school holiday programme so the objective of the programme is for NPAT to establish permanent networking partners with schools and villages,” he said.

Doa said NPAT was creating a venue and a school of its own to coincide with the holidays that produced programme uniforms and distributed to the participating villages and schools.

He said NPAT would produce the community’s pledge on DVDs and CDs and unite the communities while running the school competition programmes. “In the education of PNG, out of every 1000 Grade 8 students only 200 made it through the universities and colleges,” Doa said.

He said NPAT was trying to address imbalances in students to teacher ratio, parent’s failure to assist their children doing homework, students exposed to nude drawings on walls of their school ablution blocks, access to pornographic materials and movies on cell phones, school fee problems and migration.

He said NPAT had produced two manuals – Life is manoeuvering through the challenges” and Elements of Culture specifically to use during the programme. 

“The programme has created a venue for professionals from all walks of life to share their knowledge, skills and experiences with the students.”