School head: Bad grades due to lack of facilities

By YVONNE HAIP
LACK of adequate facilities in a community school in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, is stopping students from continuing on to Grade 9.
The St Nicholas Kameng Community School is the only school nestled on the Kameng plateau on the far side of the Nebilyer river, near Waninga, on the border of Mt Hagen and Nebilyer districts.
The school, which enrols up to 500 students annually, was established in 1978 and has since seen little development.
It lacked essential facilities like houses for teachers, a library and proper classrooms.
School board chairman Peter Peta said that hindered the level of learning and limited the chances of students advancing in their education.
He said students selected to continue to Grade 7 in other primary schools found it difficult to cope.
As a result, at least 90% of the St Nicholas students did not make Grade 9 because they could not score decent marks in the Grade 8 examinations.
Peta said there were many students with potential in the school, but because of the lack of facilities, they were unable to obtain further education.
He said to correct that the school needed urgent funding for proper facilities.
He said the school needed to be converted into a primary school.
The only significant development at the school was a double-classroom funded by local MP and Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma, who committed an additional K40,000 to the school last month.