Funding delay leaves Western school without rations

By JOSHUA MANI
A HIGH school in remote Western has run out of food as a result of delays in Government funding, its principal says.
Morehead High School in South Fly resorted to making and feeding its 210 students sago over the weekend after running out of rice and tinned fish, principal Paul Nidue said.
“We are facing a food shortage because the only store in Morehead Station where we get food on credit (basis) has run out of bales of rice and cartons of tinned fish. We can’t get it from Daru because we hardly have any cash left,” he said.
Nidue said the school was still waiting for the second quarter of it tuition fee free (TFF) funds which were due at the start of the second term.
He said they received their first TFF since the school started in 2017 earlier this year after he gave a situation report to the Education Department but most of the K70,000 was used up to settle debts acquired in 2017 and 2018.
“The only option left for me is to make use of what food sources that is on the ground, so I’ve decided to let students to go pound sago over the weekend and ask parents to bring some from their own villages,” he said.
“It will affect the studies of students but this is the sacrifice we have to make in order to allow classes to continue.”
Nidue planned to continue feeding students with sago for the rest of the week until help arrives.
He appealed to the Fly River government and the South Fly administration to assist.