Lae residents to petition govt on school fights

By GABRIEL LAHOC
PASTORS and residents of Lae’s ward two will present a petition to the Morobe provincial government and administration to take tougher action against school rivalry and student groupings in the city.
That follows the death of a Bugandi Secondary School student in Lae, Morobe, two weeks ago after he was stabbed by a fellow student at Eriku.
The deceased was the son of a pastor in Lae.
The Ministers Fraternal in Lae, comprising pastors from Pentecostal churches, have teamed up with ward two councillor Michael Koy and neighbouring streets in Top Town, and intend to pressure the provincial education board and police for tougher action.
As concerned members of the community, they called on provincial programme adviser Murika Bihoro to be replaced by someone who could enforce tougher measures for the safety and well-being of students.
Pr Newman Watapi said they would call for:
l    The provincial education board to draw up a strategic plan in consultation with school administrations to see a smooth running of the 2013 academic year;
l    Treat student members of cult groups in schools as criminals as well as teachers who, as former members of cult groups, were taking sides with students;
l    Proper checks on students every day at school gates to check for weapons brought into campuses and for the erection of fences around schools to stop the entry of outsiders into schools;
l    The religious instructions subject to made a compulsory core subject in the education system;
l    PNG Teachers Association to discipline teachers with disciplinary records instead of transferring them;
l    Provincial education board to implement school-based counsellors in all Lae schools;
l    Cut down on extra students in classes by refusing transfers when classes are already full;
l    Restrict the sale of yeast to bakeries to deter the brewing of homebrew;
l    Recruitment of extra police personnel;
l    Improved services at the Angau hospital emergency department; and
l    The removal of illegal squatter settlements in Lae.
“We see that the provincial education board has not done enough about this ongoing problem in our schools.
“They need to explain,” Watapi said.