Investment in education soon to pay

 THE government’s massive investment in education will start paying off handsome dividends in the next couple of years, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says.

O’Neill said on FM100’s Talkback Show yesterday that the benefits of free education, improved facilities, and better conditions for teachers would show over the next 10-20 years with a better-educated population.

“When we introduced free education in 2011, people thought that we could not afford it, that we were making an election promise that could not be sustained,” O’Neill said.

“We have proven them wrong. In 2012, we funded over K650 million, in 2013 we are funding another K650-K700 million.

“We will continue to do so in the following years. We were able to find the money to fund free education that is now being rolled out nationwide.

“We are trying to make it compulsory next year for every child in the country to be in school.

“We are going to make sure that parents take up that responsibility in making sure that their kids are in school.”

O’Neill said the government was also committed to rebuilding rundown tertiary institutions in the country.

“Many of our universities, technical colleges, teachers colleges all have become rundown,” he said.

“We need to rebuild their capacities, their infrastructure, and this is why government has allocated over 

K500 million to ensure this happens.”