School expecting more students

BUSU Secondary School in Lae is expecting more enrolments for grades nine and 11 this year, principal George Noble says.
But Noble said the school couldn’t accept all of them as spaces were limited.
He said the school had faced this problem since 2016.
Noble said for this year, the school had taken 414 grade nine students who would be placed in seven classrooms with 60 students in each.
“While we have that number, we have the repeating, the withdrawn students and those that were facing disciplinary charges coming back to enrol this year,” he said.
Noble said some parents were asking for spaces and had offered to buy desks and chairs for their children.
“The problem we have now here is availability of spaces.
“We cannot keep taking in students but we have to be carefully picking those that are quality.”
To negotiate for that, the school’s academic advisory committee has suggested an entry test for those that want to be enrolled at the school.
Noble said through this test, students could be identified properly and those that met the criteria would enrol for classes.
He said it was a fairer way of allocating space for students. The entry test is based on past exam papers from grades eight to 10 for students who wanted to enrol in grades nine and 11.
Noble said the school would impose a K50 fee to take the entry test with a 50 per cent refund.