Infrastructure has been an issue for many schools in the country and one such school is Tubetube Primary School on Tubetube Island in the Samarai-Murua District in Milne Bay Province.
As school resumes for the year, Tubetube Primary School is working against all odds to complete a double classroom with a library to accommodate the students.
The need to build the classroom comes after the School Board of Management saw the deteriorating school infrastructure due to the Government’s limited funding allocated to maintain school infrastructure.
With funding constraints, the school’s board of management submitted multiple proposals to the government and various stakeholders, however, was unsuccessful.
The community through the school’s board of management leadership took on the challenge as an opportunity to mobilize resources, and skilled workmen, and alternate ways at the community level to construct the 2-in-1 classroom which includes a school library.
The US government through the Young Pacific Leaders Grant, the school was able to access funding of US$10, 000 (approximately K30, 000). Despite the limited funds, the community was determined to complete the project.
The grant was made possible through an application submitted by a group of young leaders who participated in Young Pacific Leaders (YPL) Project training, held in New Zealand in 2022. The project team comprises of Kim Allen, Project Team Leader, Milka Akane, Secretary and Lydia Dimokari, Treasurer were able to successfully source the grant through an application.
The Chairman of the Tubetube Primary School Board of Management Alan Rubin expressed gratitude to the Young Pacific Leaders program.
“This funding was a seed capital that complimented community resources such as timber, resource owners, dinghies, sailing canoe and skilled carpenters that helped in the project,” Rubin said.
“We are a remote Island school with challenges in transportation, unpredictable weather, and no communication coverage among others. To receive such support is a blessing. The community had invested their resources such as timber, time, and transport to implement the classroom project,” Mr. Rubin added.
The classroom is expected to be completed by the end of February 2024 for the students to use.
The YPL Project Team Leader Kim Allen said, “It is a community effort that displays community resilience, effort, and the drive to see positive change at the community level. Community-led projects enable the community to take ownership and sustainability of the project.”
Tubetube Primary School is located in the Samarai Murua District of Milne Bay Province and accommodates over 170 students from different Island groups in the Engineering Group of Islands. It is a United Church Agency school established in 1963 as a community school and recently upgraded by the Education Division to a primary school.
