Landslide delays DWU students

National, Normal
Source:

By YVONNE HAIP

DIVINE Word University students could not make it in time for registration and orientation week which began on Monday because the landslide at Tapo in Madang province has not been cleared after two weeks.
Students travelling in from the Highlands and Morobe provinces were delayed because of the roadblock on the road about two hours drive out of Madang.
Some Highlands students who were supposed to travel to Madang over the weekend were forced to remain in Mt Hagen and complained that they were late for registration and would have to pay a fine for every day they missed.
The frustrated students fronted up at The National yesterday to express thier grievences.
They said it would be very hard to swap PMVs at the roadblock because they would be carrying  heavy loads since it was the start of the school year.
They said they did not have money to pay the K20 fee that locals were charging to cross the by-pass road.
The students said this would not have been a problem in the previous years, but this year, due to the “paperless university” policy, students were travelling with computers and other personal accessories.
They also said sometimes, there was no transport waiting on the other side of the road block and some students had even spent the night outside waiting.
Because of this, students from the Simbu, Western Highlands and Southern Highlands provinces called on the university and Education Department to provide air tickets for them.
The students claimed they had talked with a travel agent to organise tickets for them but so far, no response has been given.
They said this was an issue that needed to be addressed promptly by the provincial and national governments, as well as the university.