Members of school boards told not to misuse funds allocated for infrastructures

MEMBERS of school boards in a district in East Sepik have been told to manage public funds wisely.
Yangoru-Sausia District Development Authority chief executive officer Fanstan Yeninen said they must not play around with public funds allocated to build school properties.
“These properties are needed for our students to learn in a conducive environment and get quality education,” he said.
The district authority last week bought a K200,000 truck for the Kubalia Secondary School.
Yeninen said he had made changes to the Yangoru Secondary School management which had seen good results.
“We used to see grade 12 students securing only six to 15 places in higher tertiary institution. But when we changed the management, 73 out of 112 graduates secured places in higher tertiary institutions last year,” he said.
“And this year, we expect to see more secure places in higher tertiary institutions.”
Yeninen said he had expressed concern that board members of some schools were enrolling too many students from other districts because they wanted the tuition fee-free funds to increase,” he said.
“This created overcrowding in the classes with not enough teachers to teach the students properly.
“That’s why grade 10 students and grade 12 students from these schools got very poor grades last year. The majority did not make it to grade 11 and tertiary institutions this year.
“So I’m warning the board members of all the primary and secondary schools in my electorate to be concerned about quality than quantity. They must not just enroll students just to get an increase in TFF funds.”