Food cut as school runs out of cash

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
STUDENTS at Morobe High School in Huon Gulf have been forced to have only two meals a day to reduce costs as money runs out because of the delay in tuition free fee (TFF) funding payment.
Principal Norman Apul said not much has been done to cater for the students’ needs and the general running of the school since it started in 2008.
“The school is a level six high school. We have only three grade 9 and four grade 10 classes,” Apul said.
“Of the 400 students, we have 346 boarding students this year.
“The school has no running water. We have only tanks that provide water. When the tanks are empty, we close the school.
“And we have only four dormitories – two for boys and two for girls – while we do not have a science laboratory, a library or a computer laboratory.”
Apul said funding was important to run the school and that tuition fee-free (TFF) funds should be given according to the census form filled at the beginning of the year.
“We cannot cater for the boarding students. We spend huge amounts of money for the food alone – a total of K25,000 per term on rice and meat,” he said.
“The students eat 50 bags of rice, three cartons of tinned fish and three cartons of noodles a week.
“We provide food only in the morning and afternoon. If I spend money on lunch also, we will close the school in week six or seven of each term.
“Transport is another problem because we have freight cost to cover each week as there is no road to carry our supplies. We hire boats for K1000, and spend K800 on fuel per trip.
“The high cost of transportation and fuel is draining all the money.”
He said the school gets food on credit, and gets loans from lenders and pay back with interest whenever the TFF funding is received.
“There is no other way around. I have to make sure students have food to eat, and to be able to pay transport for supplies,” he said.
“We are negotiating with distributors who supply food. We get goods on credit and pay them later.Right now there is nothing much to do but to cut down on costs, borrow and wait for next payment.”
He said in the first quarter of the TFF payments in January, they received K40,000, and they are still waiting for the second quarter payment.
He said the school has used all the funds and was operating on borrowed money.
The boarding students who attend the school were not only from villages in the Huon Gulf but from as far as Finschhafen and Bulolo.