MP encourages students to bring change to Maprik
The National, Tuesday July 16th, 2013
By ELLEN TIAMU
STUDENTS from Maprik, East Sepik, at the University of Technology (Unitech) and other colleges and tertiary institutions have been urged to help to bring change to the electorate.
Maprik MP John Simon made the challenge last Friday when presenting a cheque to pay for fee subsidies for students from his electorate studying at Unitech in Lae.
Simon said Maprik and East Sepik had not developed much since 2008 and much of the money for projects in the district since then had been from donor agencies.
“All our roads are rundown and what happened to the district services improvement programme (DSIP) funds over this past year,” he asked.
Simon said it was up to elites, including students, from Maprik to work together to bring change to the area.
He encouraged them to return home during their semester breaks to help their parents put together proposals to fund cottage projects.
Simon said there was no data available in the district to indicate how many students were studying in tertiary institutions and he was working on updating the database so he could continue with the assistance in the coming years.
He presented a cheque for K28,000 to the university administration – K,1000 each for 28 students.
Simon said the cheque for tertiary students this year was late because of problems with the district administration but promised that payment would be made early next year and that payment would be increased to K1,500 per student.
He said he was contemplating scholarships for the best students and his focus was on students who lived in the district and whose parents earned a subsistence income.
Simon has allocated K200,000 for tertiary school fee subsidy this year but that will increase to K500,000 next year.
He encouraged high school students in Maprik to work hard so more could enter university.
He told the students he had earmarked K4 million for the re-opening of the Hayfield airstrip, K9 million for re-development of Maprik Hospital and K1 million to build a new police barracks.