School urges MP to release funding

TAMBUL-Nebilyer MP Win Bakri Daki has been urged to release tuition fee free (TFF) infrastructure component for schools in the district to be used to maintain and upgrade classrooms, staff houses and other projects.
Arawagai Primary School chairman councillor Peppsy Pet Dupai, from Nebilyer, raised this concern on Thursday after officially opening a staff accommodation built at a cost of K70,000.
Dupai said of the total TFF funding, MP Daki received 30 per cent, another 30 per cent went to a contractor to supply books and learning materials while the school received 40 per cent for its operations.
He said the staff housing was built by the school from its TFF funds and that should not be the case as the MP needed to give them the infrastructure component.
Dupai said the 30 per cent being held by Daki and the district development authority belonged to the schools.
He said as the school had used a portion of its 40 per cent TFF funding to build teachers’ housing, it would struggle to operate.
“We are asking if there are possibilities of releasing the 30 per cent which belongs to the school,” he said.