The rollout of the tutorial program for Flexible Open Distance Education in Morobe province was launched yesterday in Lae.
The program rollout is funded by the Morobe Provincial Government to a tune of K1million.
The main aim is to alleviate the high number of primary and high school dropouts in the province over the next ten years.
The new tutorial program will provide students including adults a second chance to complete grades eight, ten and twelve through flexible learning.
The FODE program began in Goroka in 2006 however could not rollout to other districts.
In 2013, founder of the program, Sharon Mathias choose to trial it out in the Morobe province. She was given the provincial governments blessing to support and fund the concept.
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Over the last couple of years, the numbers of students dropping out from school has been dramatically increasing.
Morobe Governor Kelly Naru in his keynote address expressed concerns about a lack of space in highschools. Over 50% of grade 8 students in the province didn’t make it to grade 9 this year.
Governor Naru says through this partnership they are addressing the current situation in secondary schools.
Mr Naru was given the honour to officially cut the ribbon to launch the program.
Finschaffen is likely to be the first district for the program to be rolled out, as their local MP and National Parliament Speaker Theodore Zurenuoc committed K50, 000 towards the program rollout.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=c75MgJcGY-s%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
