Rural school aims to build new library

By PETER WARI
FOGOMAIYU Primary School is aiming to build a library after completing classrooms for its students and housing for its staff, head teacher Cedric Nir says.
A K150,000 funding to improve infrastructures was made available by Nipa-Kutubu MP Jeffery Komal last December.
Komal provided similar funding to other schools in the district.
Nir said since the school had permanent buildings, building a library was his priority as students in the rural areas needed to read books unlike students from urban centres who had access to modern technology.
He said when the library was completed, he would write to donors to help the school with books.
Nir and wife Raina (both teachers) from Hekenda village in the Upper Mendi LLG of Mendi-Munihu, took up the posting at the school in 2003.
The school was neglected and teachers were reluctant but the two, with their daughter Zebazitha, walked a long distance to reach the school.
It is one of the five schools in the Mt Bosavi LLG in Nipa-Kutubu, Southern Highlands.
Nir said after spending 17 years at the school, his own family had grown in size with five more children, all born at Fogomaiyu.
“When we first arrived at the school, there were two permanent buildings, a teacher’s house and a classroom funded by Oil Search Ltd (OSL) under the tax credit scheme,” he said.
He said the two buildings were built in the bushes and it was a hard work clearing the area.