Poroma’s education fix

By TONY PALME
EDUCATED elites of Poroma in Nipa Kutubu district of Southern Highlands have mobilised to ensure Poroma has an educated population.
“The fact that few or none of the students from Poroma have entered university is the reason for Poroma Students and Graduates Association to be formed,” said its president Reuben Enoch.
Like-minded students from Poroma who attended various tertiary institutions in the country have formed the association to address the lack of educated human resource in the sub-district.
Enoch said out of 20 Poroma students that complete Grade 12 every year, only one makes it to the major universities in the country while most miss out.
He said they have done their own research and found out that at some point, there was no student from Poroma entering those universities.
“Because of the lack of educated human resource, Poroma lagged behind on many things.
“This association has been formed to address this issue, to ensure more of our young people enter universities and other tertiary institutions,” Enoch said.
Enoch added that the association is the vehicle to drive human resource development and is the voice of the people – to change Poroma through education.
The association was registered and certified by the Investment Promotion Authority on July 13, 2016.
It was launched on Dec 31, 2016 at Poroma, witnessed by educated elites, professionals and 23 councillors representing more than 25, 000 people of Poroma.
Enoch, a Foreign Service officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs said the educated elites wanted to see Poroma heading in a new direction led by an educated population.
“These few educated elites and students have come up with the concept of forming the association in 2014. In 2015, they have carried out awareness which was well received and supported and eventually it was launched in 2016,” Enoch reiterated.
Enoch in his speech told people that developing the human resource through education should be a collective effort from all tiers of Government, development partners and the people.
“We cannot continue to wait for politicians to give handouts. This mentality of handout is making people becoming lazy. It is time for each family units to raise their own sons and daughters to get educated and rise up at higher levels of professions and contribute to nation building.
“A nation is made up of people, and the people themselves have to build their own nation. How can this nation be built to reach the standard of other nations around the world when its citizens are not empowered?
We need to empower the people to build their own nation and that’s through education.”
Enoch stressed that the living standards of people in the villages cannot improve if the bulk of the population were not educated and not in formal employment.
“Education is the key to unlock all aspects of development. Education is the key to bring change in the family, communities and society at large.
“As president of this association, I welcome all stakeholders and development partners to work with us to raise the human resource of Poroma, Southern Highlands and PNG as a whole – to help build our young nation.”
Local leaders, politicians and business people applauded the initiative and pledged their support in moving forward the association’s objectives.
Michael Esop, senior lecturer and head of Psychology Strand at the University of Papua New Guinea congratulated the association executives and stressed on the importance of education.
He highlighted the huge gap between educated and uneducated population of the sub-district and agreed that not many students from Poroma enter tertiary institutions especially universities.
He concluded that the association is a mechanism that can bridge that gap.
Local leader and businessman David Kelei highlighted that there is lack of political will power to speed up the association’s objectives.
“After 40 years, Poroma didn’t occupy the Nipa-Kutubu seat. Probably the gap in educated human resource was the major contributing factor,” Kelei added.
He advised citizens to vote wisely in this coming election.
UPNG lecturer David Purkii shared similar sentiments that human resource gap has been existing for some decades.
“We have to start somewhere and the launching of the association marks a wind of change for Poroma.
It needs all our support,” Purkii said. University of Goroka lecturer and tutor Paul Boku said such association had never happened during his time.
He congratulated the young students and graduates for using their wisdom to change the lives of their people through education.