Over 30,000 to sit for exam

By LORRAINE JIMAL
and YVONNE KAMBIBEL
MORE than 30,000 Grade 12 students around the country will sit for the national written expression examinations today as scheduled, Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra says.
Kombra said the examinations would go ahead as per secretary’s circular instructions and provincial education authorities, parents and general public were asked to respect and support the 32,206 students and allow them to complete the exam.
“These are our future leaders and we must play our part to ensure that they feel safe to travel to school, especially with the election-related disturbances in the last couple of weeks,” he said.
Kombra said everyone involved in the examination process were advised to prevent all tendencies towards any malpractices that might compromise the results.
He said the penalty for cheating or assisting to cheat in the national exam was non-certification and requested all citizens to support fair examinations.
Port Moresby’s Tokarara Secondary School head of English department Liza Mageto said the students were given three weeks to read the exam booklet, and was positive they would do well.
However, she said the topic was not what they had expected as it was supposed to be on government’s event that led up to this time, instead it was about the education opinion on how English should be thought to students.
“We should at least have a topic of what is happening right now in the country as they are our future leaders and what they write is going to show us what they think is affecting them,” Mageto said.
The National interviewed other school principals who raised concerns for the students’ safety and said this should not be repeated in future elections.
Waigani Christian College principal Abakure Kaupa said the Government should look into this matter and not to repeat the same thing in future elections.
Milne Bay education advisor Roma Tuidam said 983 grade 12 students form Milne Bay would sit for their exams today.
New Ireland Education Adviser Apelis Benson said 667 Grade 12 students would sit for their exams in New Ireland.
Meanwhile, East Sepik education officials confirmed that students from more than 15 secondary schools were supposed to sit for the exams in the province however, three schools in Angoram would not sit for grade 12 exams.
Provincial examination coordinator and Mercy Secondary School Principal Alexander Marcus said the three schools Andrew Technical High, Angoram Secondary and Marienberg Technical school had school fights last year and grade 11 students withdrew.
Meanwhile, Grade 12 students of Dreikikier Technical Secondary School in East Sepik will sit for their exams after two years.
“This would be the second time for the school to sit a Grade 12 exam since 2019.
“Due to so many challenges since 2019, it wouldn’t be fair if the school had too many high expectations for their students,” Principal Jeffery Waimo said.
Considering the fact that there had been so many repeated situations in 2020 and 2021 where students repeated a particular grade for more than a year, Waimo said the teachers were doing their bests in getting the students ready.
He said students especially Grade 12s lived as far as the Wasareng Junction in Nuku, West Sepik.
Morobe education advisor Keith Tangui said a notice had been sent to police requesting their presence in all secondary schools in Lae due to increase in violent clashes recently.