Schools lack infrastructure, materials, head teacher says

 SCHOOLS face a lack of infrastructure and learning materials as they cope with the increase in enrolment sparked by the free education policy, a teacher says.

John Kama, the headmaster of Avi Primary School in Anglimp district, Jiwaka, said free tuition fees given by the government was not enough to build new infrastructure such as classrooms, teachers’ quarters, libraries and laboratories.

“Every year many new students are enrolling because of free education and we need to have infrastructure in place in order to accommodate influx of students,” he said.

Kama said it was hard for schools to send students back home because of the lack of space in classrooms.

“I call on the Government to give infrastructure grants to every school apart (on top of) the free tuition fees to build new classrooms, teachers’ houses, libraries to take in other students,” he said.

Kama said the standard teacher-to-students ratio of 1-35 is no longer followed.

“You will see that now one teacher is teaching more than 50 students in a classroom. This is just too much for a single teacher to handle,” he said.

“I want to call on the government to increase teachers’ salaries, teachers are now working under too much pressure and need to be properly compensated.”