A district in the Eastern Highlands Province is one of the first to have paid full tuition fees for students from the area going to higher learning institutions around the country.
Hengenofi’s District Administration has paid over K1.4 million for the fees.
Local MP, Robert Atiyafa, has defended the move saying that it isn’t politically motivated because he has paid fees for students from his political rivals’ areas as well.
School fee program for 2014 was rolled out on Saturday at Henganofi station. The details of the payments to government institutions were given to the students.
Critics are saying it could be used to solidify political standing, but for Atiyafa, it’s all part of human resource development. More than 605 students will have school fees paid for them.
“When it comes to educating children, whether it is provincial or secondary school, and if I go or get out of office, it must be respected,” he says.
The intervention program was strictly for Henganofi children and also for the children of the public servant’s in Henganofi.
For those students applying to go overseas for pilot training and private schools in Papua New Guinea, funds couldn’t cater for them.
The idea behind this initiative is to keep money in the parents’ pockets the district has spent over K1.4 million.
This means that in Henganofi, it’s a saving of K1.4 million for the parents to get involved in SME’s or other financial ventures.
It also extends from the governments’ Free Education Policy from primary through to secondary education.
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