Land row disrupts classes

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

CLASSES for than 100 students from the 3-Mile Elementary School in Lae have been disrupted since last week after the school gate was locked.

Angry parents and residents, after learning of the school’s situation, cut open the padlock and reopened the gate, allowing students to resume classes.

Community leader David Gene said the gate was chained by a church claiming to have title over the school land.

“They (church) have deprived students of their right to go to school by locking the gate,” Gene said.

“These are four and five-year-old kids. How can they expect them to go to school far away?”

Claiming to speak on behalf of over 700 people living in the 3-Mile area, Gene claimed that the community and the church were at loggerheads over the land and it was perhaps why the church had chained the gate.

“The school and the community hall are on that piece of land known as section 279, allotment 2 and 3.” 

Gene, who is among a number of residents living in the area for more than 20 years, said the land had belonged to the state but they were surprised to see that the church had acquired the title for it in 2009.

They had then taken the church to court in 2010 to dispute the church’s claim to the land’s title. 

The community alleged that last month, the church, with the help of armed police, erected a perimeter fence around their community hall and elementary school.