Our great stride in education

 THERE is no doubt that the O’Neill Government’s free education policy has had a greater impact on Papua New Guineans than any other government initiative since the start of the new millennium.

Despite some teething problems, doubts and criticisms, the policy has been a roaring success since it was implemented in 2012.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said at the time that it was his belief that providing free education was the key to ensuring a better future for citizens.

“Educating our children means that we are creating a path for our country and developing the leaders of tomorrow. Without an educated population, we will only continue to have issues with high unemployment, high crime rates and low morale driven by people unable to secure jobs.”

Three years on, O’Neill is riding on the success of the policy and has reasserted that education is an essential human right.

“Education is not an exclusive right for the rich and for the privileged people, but it should be seen as a right for every person in Papua New Guinea,” he said during the inaugural graduation of the Enga Institute of Business Studies (IBS) in Ireilya, outside Wabag town, on Friday.  

Undoubtedly, the leader who has been at the forefront of free education is Enga Governor Peter Ipatas. 

The “action governor” initiated the concept 17 years ago when he was first elected to Parliament and has been responsible for the education of thousands of Engans, many of whom now hold high and influential positions in government and the private sector.

Rightly so, O’Neill heap­ed praise on Ipatas for his vision in education.

“Enga is leading Papua New Guinea in educating its young generation. “The undying commitment by your governor in making education a priority for Enga is now evident all throughout Papua New Guinea.

“When we came to Government in 2011, we saw the results of Governor Ipatas’ achievements and adopted many of his policies at the national level. 

“People can look to our Tuition Fee Free (TFF) policy, which has enabled an additional one million children to be educated in the last three years, and thank Governor Ipatas for his ideas.”

O’Neill hailed Ipatas for effectively implementing tangible developments in health, law and order, infrastructure and strengthening of small businesses in the community. “I applaud the governor’s outstanding development programmes and urge the people to take pride and ownership of their Governor Ipatas’ initiatives.”

The governor’s foresight and achievements earned Enga the opportunity last year to pilot the change in distribution of the National Government’s education subsidy funds from the province instead of Waigani. Other provincial governors should follow Ipatas’ lead, particularly his outstanding management of Enga’s homegrown education policy. They should take heed of the Enga provincial government’s requirement for students to achieve high grades so that they can continue to benefit from the free tuition fees.

Parents are obliged to en­sure that their children achieve high grades in school so as to justify the money spent on their education by the national and provincial governments as well as individual MPs.

After all, government funds spent on free education are derived from individual and company taxpayers who would like to see that their contributions to the state coffers are well spent to benefit the country.

The O’Neill Government has put its money where its mouth is on free education in PNG. The Government’s decision last year to boost funding for education has seen a budget allocation increase from less than one billion kina in the last three years to more than two billion kina in 2015.  

This means almost 20 per cent of the total national budget is dedicated to educating the children who are the future of this nation.

We agree that not many developing countries with populations like PNG have made similar inroads in education. As the Prime Minister rightly said during the Enga IBS graduation,“Edukesen tasol bai senisim dispela kantri (Education only will change this country).”