The Prime Minister, Hon. Peter O’Neill CMG MP, has expressed his appreciation to families around the nation who have embraced free primary education and are ensuring their children are attending school.
He said in Papua New Guinea all children now have the opportunity to attend school, and that it is important that all families make use of this opportunity to provide a brighter future for their children that could include further vocational or university studies. In highlighting the value of expanding access to education, Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill also condemned the misleading claims and ill-considered ideas of the Opposition Leader over recent days in relation to education policy. “The Opposition Leader was part of governments for twelve years in which he held senior ministerial positions where he could have done something,” Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill said. “Mr Polye chose to do nothing about education and suddenly he has all these ideas about capacity. “This government is addressing capacity issues including expanding infrastructure in all tertiary institutions and increasing funding for university places. “We are building more accommodation and lecture rooms at UPNG, with more funds are being given to colleges and institutions to build capacity. “We are further providing direct funding to tertiary colleges, for first time in our history, so that they can build further capacity in order to increase tertiary student enrolments. “Clearly, our Government is increasing the intake of students into institutions which is well beyond the numbers quoted by the Opposition.” The Prime Minister said it is somewhat astounding that Don Polye is criticizing the policy that is creating opportunities for children who, if it was not for the Government’s free education agenda, might never have had the chance for an education. “Mr Polye is being an elitist by suggesting that we should not be providing free education to every child in this country,” PM O’Neill said. “Our Government’s free primary school education policy is aimed at helping the grassroots who for too many years were denied proper access to education “More 2 million Papua New Guinean children are now in school, which is eight hundred thousand more than when we came into office. “Our education policy is further helping to build gender equality as it was often girls in poorer families who missed out on school when parents had to pay school fees.” The Prime Minister said he appreciates that student-to-teacher numbers are not optimal, but they are improving as more teachers enter the system. “It is better to get more children into school now while at the same time we are putting more people through teachers college and building additional teacher training facilities.” Comments are closed.
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