School must meet certain requirements: Kombra

The tuition fee free policy is in place to give every child the right to have access to education, Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra says.
He told a radio talkback show yesterday the 13,000 registered schools throughout the country had to meet certain criteria to receive their funds. Kombra said schools must have student enrolment in the school, be registered with a school code, have teachers and have an active bank account.
“Those are the four basic minimum requirements that we want schools to have.
“If a school doesn’t have enrolment for two consecutive years, we simply take that school off,” he said.
“We see that if they have not submitted their reports, we don’t like to take the risks, so we take it off and put it on the side. So when the enquiry come we put it back on the system and payback whatever that is due to them.” He said the department wanted to make sure that every child attends school and must stay in school.
“We want to make sure that every child needs to go to school.
“We are mindful of students roaming the streets in Port Moresby, Lae, and Mt Hagen. And a lot of the students in rural areas are still not going to school.
“There must be a legislation reform in the country to ensure that every parent in this country will be required to send their child to school. Students that reach the age of six must go to school and they must remain in school.”