Marape Foundation launched

THE Marape Education Foundation was launched by United States congressman Michael Honda in Port Moresby on Wednesday evening.
The foundation is named after Finance Minister James Marape’s father, John.
The foundation’s driving principle is “education for all” and it aims to include school dropouts in its programmes.
Marape told the more than 1,000 people including diplomats,  business representatives, members of parliament and corporate sponsors, who attended the function, that the foundation would provide education for all.
He said as a citizen, he wanted to support the Education Department to educate the unfortunate and the deprived young children of Papua New Guinea.
He said educational programmes such as vocational and technical education would be identified and developed for dropouts so that young people could have relevant life skills to sustain their livelihood in their communities.
Marape said the foundation aimed to build four pilot schools in the country, in Port Moresby, Madang, Autonomous Region of Bougainville and another in either Hela or Southern Highlands.
He said vocational and technical schools, matriculations centres and university centres would be attached to those schools and would become an integral part of them in the future.
He said information technology would be fully explored and used in the pilot schools to encourage e-learning to take place in the country.
Marape said the foundation aimed to build a university where dropouts could be educated.
He said education was the only way the nation could develop and appealed to all citizens to support education in the country.
He said the programme would partner with schools and institutions in the USA.