Gr12s to work in village courts

THE Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG) will recruit grade 12s from next year as village court officials, secretary Dr Eric Kwa says.
He said the department was focused on village courts as the most accessible justice system within the communities in dealing with law and order issues.
Kwa said providing opportunities for grade 12s would help reduce unemployment in the country.
Speaking in Port Moresby recently, he said the Government’s focus was to improve the country’s village court system.
“They deal with 500,000 cases every year,” he said.
“District courts handle about 14,000 cases annually and national courts about 13,000 cases.”
Dr Kwa said as the village courts handled a large number of cases, they needed to be better supported.
“Starting next year, Government will only employ grade 12s as peace officers and clerks in our 1,670 village courts,” he said.
“We (DJAG) need information, we need data, so we need people who are educated.
“For each village court area, we need four peace officers so you multiply that by 1,670, that’s a massive number.
“Our aim is to train those people.
“Once you (grade 12 school leavers) join the village court system, we can put you through a diploma or degree programme and you can leave us after five years, we will get the next batch.
“We are now looking for partners to develop a programme for us so we can now push our village court officials to undertake those courses funded by the Department of Justice and Attorney General.
“We will pay for it.”