Wingti makes education a priority

The National National

By LUKE KAMA
WESTERN Highlands Governor Paias Wingti is looking at converting Mount Hagen and the province into an education centre for the Highlands region and the country.
He said this when presenting his provincial government’s 2019 budget of K239 million to Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel in Port Moresby yesterday.
The total budget of K239,878,400 comprises of:

  • K202,858,000 in National Government grants;
  • K31,520,400 in internal revenue; and,
  • unspent rollover funds of K5,500,000.

Wingti said an issue that was not good to see was thousands of young people coming out of formal education at the end of grade 12 every year because of limited spaces in universities and colleges.
“We have other issues in the country that we need to address, but one issue is seeing thousands of our young people coming out of the formal education system every year at the end of grade 12,” he said.
“That’s why our focus is to convert Mt Hagen and Western Highlands into an education centre for the country.”
Wingti said they were looking at converting all well-established secondary schools in the province into colleges. “We are starting with Hagen Park Secondary School,” he said.
“It will be converted into a college this year and others will follow suit thereafter.”
Wingti said the best way to do this was to partner with private institutions. “Under our partnership agreement, we are providing the facilities for them to come and establish here, like the International Training Institute (ITI).
“We brought them into the province to use our existing facilities and they are giving 20 per cent discount on the fees they charge.
“We are also doing the same for other private institutions.
“Pacific Adventist University will soon offer its training here in the Western Highlands.
“At the same time, we are also looking at building more new high schools so our priority now into the future is education for our young people.”