K4m for fisheries, boat building facilities

By PISAI GUMAR
THE K4 million allocated to Morobe High School will be used to provide fisheries and boat-building facilities, deputy provincial administrator district services Patilias Gamato says.
He said the facilities would help train and enhance local technical skills and knowledge to boost the fishing industry in Morobe province.
Gamato said provincial and district educationists had been sent to the Kwato boat-building and maintenance centre in Milne Bay and the Kavieng fisheries college to collate information last year for planning purposes.
The information collected was in the designing process and would become a teaching guide and curriculum to be used for teaching and training students, he said.
“The curriculum will be the first of its kind in the country, specialising in skills training for boat-building, fisheries, fish preservation and net mending to be the core skill courses apart from other major related courses to support fishing industry in the country.”
He said the environment surrounding the school had determined the introduction of the course as the school was set to become a technical high school in 2014.
Gamato said the aim was to encourage, sustain and improve local fishing, net-mending, fish preservation with boat-building and maintenance skills among local people.
“It is to ensure we maintain our local fishery knowledge, skills and tactics and align them with acquired imported knowledge, improve our skills and promote fishing industry while encourage local participation in socio-economic activities in rural areas,” he said.
Gamato said trained locals would be engaged by fish producing companies like Frabelle, International Food Corporation (Besta) and other upcoming tuna fish processing companies in Lae.