Kokopo Business College to resume classes in July

THE Kokopo Business College (KBC) in East New Britain says it expects 1,300 students to arrive at its campus this week for classes which will resume next month.
Deputy principal Memafu Sabadi, who was caretaker administrator of the college, told The National that the suspension of classes had been lifted by the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology.
“Teachers resumed yesterday and lectures are expected to start next Monday,” he said.
Sabadi said a few students had arrived at the campus and they were expecting more as the week progressed.
He said that they would continue with the second semester according to schedules instead of starting all over again.
“If we start all over again, students who are on government scholarships would lose their scholarships and we have students graduating this year so, we would proceed with units for the second semester which have been divided into three separate terms,” he said.
Higher Education secretary Dr Francis Hualopmomi confirmed to The National that the situation had been stabilised.
“Minister Wesley Raminai has released a statement for the resumption of the second semester so students under tertiary education scholarship assistant scheme will be travelling to Kokopo,” he said.
As per the statement released by Raminai, semester two would proceed as scheduled while the caretaker administration would adjust their academic year to cater for courses not completed in semester one.
The statement also advised that this decision had been made by all parties that normalcy had returned and that security of students and property of the State were guaranteed.
The National understood that KBC had been suspended for more than a month on May 2 due to the killing of two local men within its premises.