IEA begins academic year

THE OFFICIAL start of school for 2010 began on Wednesday for more than 5,000 students at International Education Agency (IEA) schools throughout the country, the IEA training and development services at Ela Beach said yesterday.
IEA co-ordinator for training and development, Trevor Birney, said IEA teachers resumed
on Monday while students started on Wednesday for the agency’s 16 primary and high
schools nationwide.
He said while the commencement of the academic term kicked off on a high note, its four Tertiary and Further Education (TAFE) colleges would commence early next month from Feb 8.
IEA media officer Ian Kially said later yesterday that the four provincial TAFE centres are at Ela Beach in NCD, Mt Hagen, Kimbe and Lae.
IEA is the largest private education and training provider in PNG and its institutions are located in 14 provinces.
It emphasises life-long learning through school education and vocational and professional training.
Mr Kially also confirmed that there were a total of 290 plus teachers teaching at all the IEA institutions.
Mr Kially did not specify if this number of teaching staff included IEA and TAFE college lecturers.
Meanwhile other private education providers such as the KopKop College in NCD also began school on Wednesday.