Kombra: Poll will not affect schools

The National National

By LORRAINE JIMAL
EDUCATION secretary Dr Uke Kombra says election dates will not affect the education calendar, but slight changes will be made between terms two and three.
Kombra said term two would have 11 schooling weeks and term three would have 10 schooling weeks while term four remained as it was to be aligned with the revised election dates.
He said this was adjusted to avoid class disruptions and the national examinations’ dates for this year.
“What we have done is to reduce the 10 weeks of term two to 11 weeks and reduce 11 weeks of term three to 10.
“So in total for the whole year, we still maintain the 41 weeks of schooling year and there are no lessons missed due to the election,” he said.
Kombra said the exam dates would remain the same.
He said the first national examination of written expression would be on June 2 for grade 10 and all the other dates for examinations remained the same.
He announced the revised dates in the following:

Students from schools in Lae attending the two-day inter-school exhibition earlier this month. Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra says election dates will not affect the education calendar. – Nationalpic by GLORIA BAUAI
  • Term two holiday starts on July 4;
  • Term two holidays end on July 15;
  • Term three starts on July 18;
  • Writs open on May 12’;
  • Close of nominations on May 19;
  • Polling starts on July 2;
  • Polling ends on July 22; and,
  • Return of writs on Aug 1.

He urged the school boards, teachers and students who would take part in the election activities to observe the dates and return to schools on the set dates.

Police say fight not poll-related

By REBECCA KUKU
FIGHTING in Mt Hagen is not related to the election and should not disrupt the election process, says Eastern-end commander Assistant Commissioner of Police Rigga Neggi.
Neggi said he had deployed police out to the border of Western and Southern Highlands and recalled mobile units to be stationed in Mt Hagen.
“The fight started as a result of an incident that happened on May 1, a group of young boys from Southern Highlands were drinking at a club in Mt Hagen and around 2am, the club wanted to close as usual and asked them to leave.”
“But the boys refused to do so, they eventually came out and one of them open fired into the air and got into a car, they were then attacked and chased by the people living around the area but one of them was left behind,” Neggi said
“He unfortunately was beaten by the crowd and later pronounced dead.”
Neggi denied speculations on social media that the fight was in protest to changes made by the electoral commissioner.
“This incident has nothing to do with the election.”