One more new high school

THE Ogelbeng Lutheran Primary School in Western Highlands province has been upgraded to a high school
This was announced by Mt Hagen central district education adviser Steven Ronomu during the school’s sixth graduation last Thursday.
This is due to the high enrolment rates in schools around Mt Hagen city.
Mr Ronomu said there were not enough high schools in the district to support the influx of students from lower primary schools around the district.
He said currently there were 84 schools in the district, of which 55 were elementary, six community, 20 primary and three high schools.
Mr Ronomu said elementary schools were “mushrooming” around the district, and had outnumbered the existing primary schools and high schools.
He said because of this high enrolment rate, the districts three secondary schools-Hagen Park, Hagen and Togoba, were not enough to cater for all Grade Eight and 10 pass outs.
Mr Ronomu said the provincial education board had also decided on increasing the pass mark for Grade Eight to 90 due to the limited number of spaces for Grade Nine.
He also encouraged parents to send their children to school as it was their right and the Government was also aiming at achieving universal basic education by 2015.
Mr Ronomu said the Government was looking at creating a greater population that had some form of basic education, instead of most people being illiterate.