UOG focuses on quality

Reports by KARO JESSE in Goroka
THE University of Goroka’s (UOG) primary focus is to produce quality teachers and will not diversify into other disciplines which it is not staffed or equipped to offer, acting vice-chancellor Dr Teng Waninga says.
Speaking at the university’s 24th graduation ceremony yesterday, Dr Waninga highlighted UOG’s vision in front of 700 graduates who were expected to join the country’s teaching service.
A second batch of 600 students will graduate on Friday.
Dr Waninga said earlier that it was important for UOG to maintain its work of producing quality teachers and to avoid over diversifying its programmes, which would stretch its resources and ultimately affect the institution’s capacity to produce quality graduates.
He said there was an attempt to build a medical school, however, the project never eventuated with almost half a million used in the name of that project.
“The previous governing council of UOG wanted to build a medical school and they budgeted a good amount of money for the project,” he said.
“To date, there’s nothing to show for it.
“It’s a matter of interest for the investigation team to find out how much was spent and used in the process of building the medical school. For the new management and the interim council, we will leave the medical school and any other programmes except for quality teacher training.
“That’s our main aim, so we must not lose focus on that.” Dr Waninga said other institutions such as the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of Technology and others were already teaching other necessary disciplines such as law, medicine, technology and agriculture.
Higher Education Minister Wesley Raminai also supported the direction set by Dr Waninga during his speech at the graduation.