Villagers want Kubalia High headmaster sacked

By GABRIEL FITO
VILLAGERS near Kubalia High School in East Sepik are at loggerheads with the school’s board of governors over the re-appointment of a former headmaster to the school this year.
The villagers are protesting against a “last minute” decision by the school’s board to keep former head teacher, Patrick Nembeli, saying he should leave because of serious allegations of mismanagement last year.
In a petition dated Jan 16 presented to provincial education adviser Joseph Auli and provincial police commander Snr Insp Vincent Pokas, the villagers accused Nembeli and the school board of, among other things, misusing more than K170,000, weak management resulting in poor teacher performances which subsequently led to poor academic output for Grade 10 last year and destruction of school property by the headmaster’s family over extra marital affairs.
The villagers’ spokesman, Jimmy Huriangu said they were happy with the provincial education board’s appointment of a new headmaster this year but to their dismay, the school’s board meet last Friday and recommended Nembeli ahead of the PEB’s appointment.
Huriangu said the PEB had appointed Albert Tongama as the new headmaster and they fully supported that appointment.
He said they did not want Nembeli to remain as he had conspired with the school board to cause problems at the school last year.
They asked Pokas to order an investigation into the allegations to ensure that justice was done.
Pokas told the villagers who gathered at Kubalia station last Thursday that the allegations were serious in nature and assured them that Nembeli would be investigated by police.
Attempts to get comments from Auli were unsuccessful but secondary school adviser Damien Sam, in a text message, said Nembeli was the headmaster.