Money shouldn’t be spent on stationery

THE current Tender Advertisement for Companies to Supply Basic Educational Materials under the TFF component is a total waste of Tax payer Funds.
To supply exercise books, rulers, pencils, crayons, chalks, amongst others is a total waste of money.
Last year a company was awarded the TFF component to supply basic educational materials but the company provided some of the poorest quality materials and there were many complaints about this company in newspapers and the media.
Did the Department of Education check to ensure these complaints from headmasters and principals were true?
For example; the exercise books provided were of the poorest quality with very poor cover page paper quality.
The money should alternatively be used to purchase student textbooks, which I must say are non-existent in the classrooms today.
Why is this very need being overlooked and money spent for basic stationary needs that the parents can be responsible for?
The argument that parents cannot afford a minimum of K10 to buy pencils, rulers, exercise books etc, is a poor one.
Parents must be responsible for taking care of these basic school materials so that the Government can concentrate on improving the Standard Based Curriculum (SBC).
In 2015, so much fanfare went into changing the Outcomes-based Education (OBE) to Standards-based Curriculum.
The officers of the Curriculum Division worked so hard in producing an excellent Elementary Education Syllabus and Teachers Guides.
These were the first of its kind in PNG written by PNG National Curriculum writers. Congratulations to them for their great efforts – well done!
But where is this great work going to lead us, if we have no textbooks and Students Activity books for the children?
I suggest the Government and Education Department focus their attention in developing textbooks and student Activity books for our children, starting with elementary education.
Why do you think the Standard of Education is failing today with university students who can hardly read let alone write?
The Department of Education and the Government, you have failed in your duties to ensure that students are offered the best possible education from the onset supported with quality educational textbooks.

SME Supporter, Via email