School needs money for facilities

 By ELIAS LARI

STUDENTS leaders at the Minj Secondary School in Jiwaka are calling on local MPs to fund   the upgrading of facilities at the school.

Their main complaints are the overcrowded dormitories with leaking roofs and having to use pit toilets because there is no water supply for the sewerage system.

Enrolment figures show that more than 900 students are from the Anglimp-South Waghi electorate, 600 from North Waghi and more than 200 from the Jimi electorate.

They want their MPs Mai Dop, Dr Fabian Pok and Komun Joe Koim to help the school fix problems.

They said the students’ mess, classrooms and teachers’ quarters also needed renovation.

Grade 12 student leader Paul Kiap said it was a risk studying in such rundown facilities.

“It is not good struggling to learn in an environment that is not fit for learning,” Kiap said.

Peter Goi, another student leader, said they were forced to use contaminated water and pit toilets because the sewerage system was not working.

He said Governor William Tongamp helped built a dormitory for K270,000 which they were using.

Principal Paul Bangie confirmed that the school needed proper facilities.

“I’m operating on what has been given to me and cannot exceed,” Bangie said.

“I cannot deny what the students are raising. The first was from the girls and now the boys, and I do not know if teachers are feeling the same.”

Bangie said Minj was the only government-run secondary school in Jiwaka.