Parents want Pangia school ‘back to normal’

PARENTS of students attending Pangia Secondary School in Southern Highlands want the school back to normal so that the school year can finish well.
They said this while refuting claims by board chairman James Koiya that the school was not facing a shortage of food and school stationery supply.
Speaking in response to a media report in this newspaper on Nov 10, they said the school was currently “closed”.
Parents who travelled from Pangia to Mt Hagen, told The National that things at the school were not normal with students not attending classes daily and lessons being disrupted.
They also raised concerns over why Koiya had denied the allegations when the board which he (Koiya) had been a part of had been dissolved because of these very reasons.
The school board had been dissolved since Oct 22 by the provincial education board and had been instructed to facilitate fresh election and submit new membership list for endorsement.
Provincial education adviser Joel Raitano dissolved the board citing reasons that the current board interim term had lapsed, no board meetings had been conducted, there was no school learning improvement plan (SLIP) in place, poor management of the school affairs and finances were evident and negligence of obliged duties as a governing body had because an outcry of the stakeholders and student body.
Due to evident problems faced in the school, parents and citizens representatives intervened and carried out investigations which were revealed in a meeting.
Some highlights of the meeting included the lack of school budget plan which resulted in over debt by providers and shortage of food rations, no discipline of staff and students and showed through regular absenteeism, teacher in-fighting and no quarterly financial reports.
Other issues raised were the state of school assets such as run down toilets and bathrooms, no proper water supply and standard light system, excessive damage to school properties and no adequate learning materials.