Oro leaders, focus on improving education level

 IT is utterly disappointing that while education in Oro has deteriorated to a crisis state, the good governor is vocal over the Unitech saga and its internal affairs.
While it may be a national issue and needs to be addressed by national leaders, Oro’s education is also an issue that must be addressed by both Delilah Gore and David Arore.
The Oro governor and the two open members need not be reminded of the decaying education standard in the province.
Oro has been at the bottom when it comes to national examinations since 1995, and yet no one has ever talked about it publicly, unlike other provinces.
For instance, the Bareji High School is located in the middle of nowhere and because of its isolated location, no one gives it a thought except for a few teachers and parents.
It so happens that most of the children are from the Ese (Afore) plateau where Arore comes from.
Children at this school engage in tribal warfare frequently each year, where the Afore students are targeted as a minority group.
A recent tribal war (Mar 9) resulted in five students badly injured and hospitalised.
In other provinces, such incident would have made the front pages of newspapers, but because it happened in Oro, it does not get equal coverage in the dailies.
As the good governor stated concerning the Unitech saga, “Human resources are the most valuable resources in PNG and we need to have quality educational infrastructure to produce quality human resources” (Post Courier, Mar 20).
Well said, but can the same be said about Oro high schools?
A Band-Aid over an ulcer is not the answer here.
Let us pull our human and material resources together and meaningfully address the deteriorating state of education in Oro.
If you do not do it, who else will?
Let us leave national and international issues aside for a while and concentrate on our local Oro issues.
 

Brian Tieba
Goroka