Students quit due to remoteness school

By YVONNE KAMBIBEL
MORE than 50 students from a Junior High School in Dreikikier, East Sepik, have dropped out of school due to the remoteness of the school, a senior teacher says.
Kombio Junior High School principal Moses Tangeim told The National that many students left school in the space of one year.
“When we first established the school last year, we enrolled more than 200 pioneer grade nine students, but the number has continue to decrease ever since,” he said.
“Currently, we only have about 150-plus students.
“One major factor that had forced students to withdraw from school is the remote location.”
Tangeim said students had to walk for hours daily to get an education even during bad weather where they had to walk in the rain.
Situated in the remote Kombot area in the Dreikikier local level government (LLG), he said reaching the main road by foot would take three to four hours during rainy days.
He said vehicle owners refused to travel there during rainy days in fear of the bad road condition that would cause permanent damage to their vehicles.
Despite all this, Tangeim said they were pleased to announce that their pioneer grade 10s sat for their very first written expression examinations.
“This is a huge achievement for us as a remote school,” he said, adding that the teachers had started preparing the students for the other papers that were coming up later in the year.
Tangeim said another challenge was that the teaching and learning resources from the National Education Department did not reach the school on time.