Govt should fund education

GIBSON Lambea Mai’s points raised in his letter in The National on Feb 20, 2020 has no evidence and is judging people.
PNG’s economy today is in a crisis.
People need money to survive.
Money is not free to make ends meet.
People are working for money –on weekdays and weekends.
People in villages also need money to survive.
They work in their gardens from Monday to Saturday just to survive.
The surplus are taken to the local markets to sell for money.
The money earned from selling their produce is budgeted very carefully.
They are illiterate but they know how to budget the little that they have.
The money would be spent on school fees, rice and tinned fish, noodles, salt, soap, bus fare, clothes and many necessary things they need.
For the working class or public servants, they are paid and they depend on money.
This is hard work and it’s a burden for a family to survive in PNG.
The previous government came up with an idea of uplifting the parent’s burden towards children in schools.
We as parents, were relieved from that hell. And we acknowledge them for that.
During that time, parents were busy on other activities like providing clothes and saving some money for the other schooling year.
The writer accuses the previous government and parents of being lazy and depended only on the government.
This isn’t true. We never expect free handouts.
Despite the Tuition Fee Free, we still faced problems on the way.
Today, the Government is paying only 63 per cent of the school fees.
But still it’s too much for the parents to meet the rest.
For instance, the students fall under AES in UPNG are paying K3,000.
This is too much. How can a subsistence farmer meet that amount?
The government come up with Help programme.
For this, the loans are not approved yet.
When you look closely what loans means to you, it’s like digging a drain.
The loan will put a rope on the neck of the students later.
We want the government to pay the full fees and let parents concentrate on SME businesses.
The Government needs to put education first.
Put more money on the Education Department so that all children should go to school.
They should get education and live a better life in the future.
Social disorders arise because kids are not educated.
If we have many educated people there couldn’t be any problem.
As a citizen of PNG, I must say that I don’t receive free handouts.
I’m still struggling.
The Government has to look deeply in to the education system and pay the full fees for the students of PNG.

Lupzon Kenowai LK,
MausMahn Blo PNG