School loses K1105 in theft

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
AN elementary school in a church property in Lae was broken-in to on Sunday night and K1105 reserved for school projects were stolen.
Martin Luther Elementary School, located inside the Martin Luther Seminary at Malahang, lost all its student contributions and fees collected to support school activities.
The school was set up in 1997 for students around the Malahang area and seminary. It has three elementary classes.
Head teacher Lina Kaiko, from Pindiu in the Finschhafen electorate, said it was the first timne that the school had been broken-in to.
“The school is located in a very safe and friendly environment,” she said yesterday.
“We are a very small school.
“We have only three teachers and the community here always help us take care of the school property.
“But someone broke into my office.
“The wall right at the back of my table was cut open.”
She said most of the money stolen was to have been used to support the school.
“We collected K5 from each student as their contribution towards building a mini-market from where mothers can sell food,” Kaiko said,
“A total of K305 for that project was stolen.
“We also saved K300 for our World Environment Day celebration next month.
“We have invited an organisation to come and celebrate with our students.
“The amount was stolen too.
“A total of K425 for uniforms and project fees was also stolen.
“We were too busy last week that we did not bank that amount.
“Apart from that, K75 was collected from market fees.
“A total of K1105 was stolen altogether.”
Kaiko said the teachers were shocked when they arrived for classes yesterday morning.
“We did not know what to do, so we sent our 142 students home,” she said.
“We need to sort things out in our administration office before we can start classes with the students.
“We will now take extra precautions in the future after this incident.”
The school administration had not yet reported the matter to police.