School needs K700,000 for term 3

The National National

By DOROTHY MARK
THE popular Brahman Catholic High School in the Usino-Bundi district of Madang needs more than K700,000 to begin term three or it will delay classes.
Principal Paul Malangen said the school received K172,000 for tuition fee free funding this year which was not enough for running a boarding school.
“We need about K1.7 million to run the school for a whole year to cater for 700 boarding students,” Malangen said.
“We are in a very desperate situation with only K7000 remaining in the school account.”
Malangen said it was very difficult to budget with the little amount they had and could not begin term three next week until they secured some funds from somewhere.
Founder and director of the school Max David said what they had was used on school material and could not meet other operation expenses such as paying for ancillary staff salaries.
David said the school had cut down on the type and portion on students’ meals.
“They are now growing cassava and sweet potatoes, but I am worried now as the dry season is picking up,” he said.
“We might as well ask some of our ancillary staff to go home because they will not get salaries for some time.”
Malangen said parents were asked to pay for the school’s parental participation contribution of K600 for each student and most parents were not paying up.
He said the government’s free education and TFF policies had made parents lazy and ignorant about paying the fees imposed.
He said for some parents who went to pay their children’s fees at the bank could not do so because the banks refused their deposits.
David said it was not safe for the school to receive cash from the parents because they had been held up and robbed many times.
Catholic education secretary Bruno Tulemanil declined to comment on the issue but said it was a “very difficult situation” they were dealing with.
Madang education director Moses Sariki said his office was aware of the situation the school had and would find a way to assist so that Brahman students would attend classes in term three.