Govt should invest more in education

THE Government has never funded new infrastructure periodically for thepast 41 years to universities.
The new buildings currently constructed at UPNG are Australian-funded.
Any university throughout PNG must be funded well, perhaps every three years to update technologies to improve quality of undergraduate and graduate teaching and research.
This is especially so for students enrolling at the Medical and Natural and Physical Sciences where these disciplines rely heavily in technology.
The same can be said for students taking engineering courses at the University of Technology and also for the agricultural sciences.
The Government must invest well with a belief that quality graduates contribute enormously to overall quality of country expectations.
Some African universities with fewer resources than PNG are miles ahead, producing quality scientists, engineers and medical doctors because of excellent facilities and technologies.
How are our medical students expected to become top-notch doctors in surgery when they receive no training using the latest surgical technologies?
There is a need to urgently review the current grade 11-12 syllabus in our education system.
Current students who are coming to UPNG for first-year studies are in general not of high standards in overall literacy, both written and spoken English as much as to attitudes.
Many lack drives to attend lectures. In 2016 and 2017, I have noticed that many first-year students attending science lecture courses in the main lecture theatre simply never turn up, yet these students expect to get a distinction in a given course and end up taking medicine.
Life does not work this way.
There have been cases where students try to bribe a lecturer to change a low grade to a high.
In the School of Sciences, this is impossible.
I will not be surprised if students continue to attain low grades to apply to the Medical School.
Universities have great potential to make money by commercialising research findings.
One way of achieving this is for the Government, through the Ministry of Science and Technology, to allocate annual funding to all universities to apply for competitive bids in funds to commercialise innovative projects.
The PNG Government must learn from other countries like India, Malaysia and Indonesia as to how these countries have cultivated their universities to high degrees to solve their own country problems.

Topul Rali, PhD
Professor of Chemistry
School of Natural and Physical Sciences
UPNG