Follow enrolment rules

By LORRAINE JIMAL
FREE education must not be an excuse for the limited spaces and overcrowding in primary and secondary schools, Education Minister Jimmy Uguro says.
Uguro said if schools followed the rules of enrolment, there would not be any issues relating to overcrowding.
He told The National that school principals, headmasters and parents were advised to follow the laws when enroling students.
“The Marape Government is promoting quality education and is strongly discouraging overcrowding and unnecessary joy riding by few taking free education as a joy ride opportunity,” he said.
“Quality education is achieved to right sizing and correct teacher student’s ratio, so that the teaching environment is maintained at all times.”
Uguro was responding to concerns of overcrowding and limited spaces in schools by principals and headmasters.
The National spoke to some schools and was told they had overcrowding issues in schools which the ratio was one teacher to 55 to 70 students.
Uguro said with the implementation of 1-6-6 system, many schools claimed it had caused an increase in enrolment and schools were solving the issues.
He said the Government allocated funding to all the provinces and education divisions and schools should work with district authorities to provide infrastructure development and other administrative assistance.
Uguro said in spite of the development challenges, the department would focus on providing complete prep to grade 12.
He said students could take four pathways to complete their secondary education which were, conventional academic, vocational, flexible open distance education and academic science engineering and mathematics.
Uguro thanked the Government for committing K369 million to school fees for prep to grade 12 and supporting the Education Department through training since he took the office in 2019.