The truth about Fode

Letters

FIRSTLY, let me explain and enlighten how Fode education is implemented for the sake of people in the Morobe provincial government office who seem to be lost and not know the Fode structure and how it implements its programmes.
Fode education is implemented in two ways throughout Papua New Guinea.
Firstly, it works as correspondence study centres (CSCs) which are managed and coordinated from the provincial centre (PCs) as its main administration centre in a province.
CSCs report to their PC and PCs then report to the national Fode office in Waigani, NCD.
Second, Fode operates as registered study centres (RSCs).
The RSCs once used to be CSCs, but when they built classrooms, with learning facilities and tutors in place, they applied and became RSCs and they are reporting directly to the National Fode office in Waigani. RSCs become independent from their PCs and operate more like private institutions.
RSCs are based only in one location and do not have CSCs.
Unlike RSCs, PCs have many CSCs which it establishes through a coordinator system to implement Fode education in both rural and urban locations throughout a province, thus making Fode education available to all its citizens.
PCs do not charge more than K100 in fees, unlike RSCs which charges well over K300 in fees on each student that enrols with it.
Therefore, PCs struggle with limited funding, lack of printing resources and logistical support to support its CSCs right into the remote locations.
am a coordinator of a CSC located in a remote part of Morobe.
In my endeavor to bring education to many school dropouts, Morobe PC accepted my application to run a CSC in my remote community.
I have been expanding my own finances and resources to ensure school dropouts in my community continue their education through Fode because Morobe PC cannot support all our needs because of financial constraints.
I am writing this out of frustration because lately I have found out that a K1 million funding from the Morobe Provincial Government was given to an RSC which operates more like a private institution to implement Fode education in Morobe.
This RSC is based only in Lae city and serves people from other provinces who come to seek education opportunities in Lae city.
It does not serve the majority of the Morobeans, therefore, if the good governor wants to see zero dropouts in Morobe like he preaches as his policy, then his government should put the funding where its mouth is for all the Morobeans to benefit, regardless of remoteness.
K1 million is a lot of money to be given to one RSC without the whole province benefiting.
Fode’s Morobe Provincial Centre (PC) is the rightful custodian of any Fode funding allocation from the provincial government.

Struggling Remote CSC
Coordinator