by Delly Waigeno – EM TV News, Port Moresby
As Grade 12 students around the country end the first week of their National Examinations, questions about the lack of capacity at tertiary institutions still remain.
This week, the Minister for Higher Education, Malakai Tabar, said steps are being taken to address this issue.
Just over 5,000 students will make it into university, out of the 24,000 Grade 12 students sitting for the national exams.
Minister Tabar explained this week that work is being done to address the limited spaces at the tertiary level.
He said existing universities will be given funding, in the hundreds of millions, under the rehabilitation, recapitalisation program to help those tertiary institutions expand their capacities to cater for the growing number of students coming out from secondary schools with university qualifications.
But the major intervention by the Ministry is the open university concept for every district.
The other solution being looked at is building new universities. The Minister and his team will be visiting Ialibu in the Southern Highlands province, to resolve land issues at the site of the proposed Western Pacific University.
Tabar announced that the value of the government’s fee component of the Tertiary Education Scholarship Assistance Scheme has gone up.
With all these interventions, the Minister urged students to work hard in their studies.
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