Schools sending students home

By BRADLEY MARIORI
TWO schools in Kabwum, Morobe, have been forced to send boarding students home due to shortage of food, an official says.
Kabwum acting district education manager Bonus Wiong said Kabwum Secondary School and Komba High School were sending students home because store goods for shops in Kabwum had been at a shipping yard in Lae for the last four weeks.
He said the shipping companies usually transported goods to Wasu in Tewae-Siassi and then by road to Kabwum.
He said service providers had been waiting for the last four weeks for their supplies.
“This has caused a shortage of food in the schools and the schools had no option but to let the students go home until the matter is resolved when shipments will be sent to the district with the much-needed supplies,” Wiong said.
Acting district administrator Ezekiel Nigo said a district like Kabwum would be badly affected when shipping companies did not provide their service.
“Shipping companies play a vital role in the economic development of such districts and if such situation arises, that will cause downfall in business activities in districts like Kabwum and other districts who survive from shipping services,” Nigo said.
Nigo said much of the election materials and campaign materials for the 2022 general election would be coming by ship and this issue needed to be addressed to avoid delays.
Nigo said candidates for the Kabwum open seat were struggling to look after their supporters with local businesses running out of stock.
He urged the shipping companies to maintain consistency of voyages to ports along the Vitiaz Strait.
The shipping company could not immediately comment on the situation in Kabwum.