Student backs governor

 Elected leaders are mandated to serve the province and not own it, a third-year University of Papua New Guinea student says.

Matthew Mongolap, a student at the UPNG School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said that in reference to a letter to the editor on Feb 7.

The letter said Governor William Powi’s South Highlands Province was lagging as there had been struggles, especially with staging government performance indicators. 

The letter called on Powi to explain to his people why the province was last out of the 22 provinces in grades 10 and 12 results last year failing health programmes, rundown agriculture programmes, es­calating law and order problems and public servants not performing. 

But Mongolap said Powi was the mandated leader of about 300,000 people.

He said the poor performance of students last year was the result of  infighting in schools.

He said students did not take ownership of their learning by playing truant.

“A professional should have a more diplomatic way of approaching people and not run to the media as the media is not the place where you find solutions rather, it smears and tarnishes one’s reputation built over time,” he said.