Make education compulsory

IT is time the Government make it law that all children should attend either a public or state-accredited private school for a certain period of time.
There should not be any children within the school age loitering the streets.
Compulsory education holds parents and guardians and everyone else who have a part to play in a child’s education and upbringing responsible.
Basic education prepares a child intelligibly for mature adult life.
It has been a concern for authorities responsible for child and family services with issues of child loitering and labour, especially in Port Moresby.
Everyone says children are the nation’s most valuable asset and our most precious treasure and deserve a safe, healthy and conducive environment to grow.
Apart from combining all efforts into protecting children from all forms of abuse, violence, neglect as well as exploitation, all children should have a chance of entering a classroom.
There could be certain exceptions, most notably homeschooling, but virtually, there are mandates for when children should begin school and how old they should be before dropping out.
Education in Papua New Guinea is currently subsidised (was free) and at no time, attendance was compulsory.
In 2014, it was announced that compulsory education would begin in 2015.
At that time, the Government was doing its part to help parents with the tuition-fee free (TFF), but parents were not doing their part by ensuring that their children were in school and learning.
Compulsory education was to help PNG become economically independent, literate and self-reliant.
The TFF policy hit a few snags – untimely release of funds or parents saying they were not able to pay project fees or pay upfront (and get reimbursed later) but that should not have been the reason to write off compulsory education that fast.
Look at Ireland, an island in the North Atlantic.
It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel.
Ireland is the third-largest island in Europe.
It is the second largest island in the British Isles, after Great Britain.
Compulsory education there was enforced by the School Attendance Act 1926 and the Education Welfare Act 2000.
As a result of compulsory education, Ireland has one of the highest education rates in the world – 81per cent of Irish students complete second level and approximately 60 per cent of these students proceed to higher education.
Compulsory education for Ireland followed a holistic approach.
The main purpose of a holistic approach to education is to prepare individuals for a competent adult life emotionally, physically and spiritually.
That should not be hard to emulate here in PNG.
There should be three levels of education available.
Each student is required by law to attend up to the age of 16 or to high school level.
All it needs is for the Government to make that commitment for subsidised school fee, release funds timely and ensure coffers allocated to education are packed away safely in the chest ready to be distributed efficiently.
Education shall prepare the child for an active adult life in a free society and foster respect for the child’s parents his or her cultural identity, language and values and for the cultural back ground and values for others (Article 29 of unconventional of the rights of a child).