Schools receive tuition fee

 By PHILIP KEPSON

ENGA Governor Peter Ipatas has announced the disbursement of K10 million to schools in the province as tuition fees last Friday.

The funds are part of a K34 million the national government had allocated in this year’s budget for students in Enga under its tuition-fee free policy.

Ipatas told more than 8,000 people in Wabag – among them parents and students – to take ownership of the education programmes in the province in terms of assisting his government to use the funds properly.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said during a recent visit to the province that his government had selected Enga to pilot the change in distributing the subsidy funds direct from the province instead of from Waigani.

“My government has chosen Enga to try out the change in distributing tuition fees from the province instead of Waigani because of the province’s outstanding management of its homegrown education policies in the past 17 years,” O’Neill said.

Ipatas said: “The K34 million that the current government has allocated to us is a lot of money. The challenge is now on the education authorities and the parents, including school governing bodies, to take ownership in terms of achieve quality education.”

Ipatas, known as the “Action Governor” in the province, said he would make sure that more learning facilities, including classrooms, computers, libraries and information technology (IT) programmes were provided for students’ maximum benefit.

The beneficiaries of the first batch of the funds arefour secondary schools, 10 high, 116 primary, 30 community and 377 elementary schools in the province.