Pioneer school needs help

The National Weekender
EDUCATION

By KENNY ROMANUS
FOLLOWING the first contact by foreigners in Middle Fly, Catholic missionaries in the Daru-Kiunga Diocese played a major role in development since the 1960.
They opened mission stations and established schools and aid posts or hospitals using bush materials.
Bosset was one of the mission stations they established which is halfway between Daru and Kiunga along the Fly River so it was easy for the missionaries to conduct patrols by water transport. It also made it easier for people from neighbouring villages to access basic education and health care.
In the late 60s, the Catholic missionaries started building the church, missionaries’ accommodation, classrooms and the hospital in Bosset. They also started their ministry to the nearby villages of Manda, Mipan, Kuem and Aiambak after they settled.
Students from nearby villages went to Bosset Community School because that was the only school at that time. The standard of education at that school was high then.
Bosset allways sent a large number of students to Daru Provincial High School who later went on to graduate as nurses, lawyers, economists, civil engineers and journalists, etc.
A large number of them became teachers who then went up to teach in other mission schools in the upper Fly and some were even sent to the lower Ok Tedi area in North Fly.
If teachers from Bosset went up that far up the Fly as the first locals to teach in North Fly, that makes Bosset one of Western’s historical schools to produce teachers who have contributed to human resource development in the province.
The school should therefore be respected. People who know well the history of Western can attest to the historical significance of Bosset when reading this article.
Bosset Community School then became a primary school and graduated 20 classes of grade eights since year 2000.
But the unfortunate thing was that the school’s classrooms have never seen any maintenance work done on them and are starting to fall apart. They are in a very terrible condition and they need urgent maintenance or replacements.
It is hoped that the Middle Fly Open MP can work with the church and improve this school and other services to the people.
Through such a partnership the district development authority and the church can work together to build new classrooms, aid posts and other infrastructure necessary for the social and economic well-being of Middle Fly communities.
Issuing outboard motors to communities is not development. The current MP has already served three terms and this is his fourth. His people still need improvements to social service delivery throughout the district.
Maybe the Lake Murray and Nomad LLGs are not in the MP’s five-year plan for development.
The new Bosset Health Centre now under construction was funded by Australian Aid through partnership with the PNG Government.
Bosset is also under the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) region and a beneficiary area.

  • Kenny Romanus is a freelance writer.