Schools role outlined

National, Normal
Source:

ELIZABETH VUVU

THE task of national high schools is to educate “the cream of the country” to produce leaders for the future but this seems to have been long forgotten, a former principal said yesterday.
Lionel Melville said provincial high schools were keeping their best students and national high schools were often left with “the odd ones” who did not want to continue studying.
“So we lose the main point for a national high school and also lose students from all over the country,” he said.
“The Government no longer offers scholarship for students and national high schools get students  within the region.
“We must find a way again to get the cream of our high schools and put them together again for the good of the country.”
Mr Melville, a former principal of Kerevat National High School, pointed this out at the launch of the school’s history book, Tuum East Kerevat National High School and its students (1946-1986) yesterday.
Mr Melville said a national high school was a school for PNG that emphasised unity and brought together students from all over the country.
“National high schools are for ‘the best, the cream’ and this is because we must produce quality young people if we want to address the issues affecting our country and to move to the next level,” he said.
“Once you offer education on a mass basis, the standard drops and Kerevat is a clear case.”