The Administration of the Kiunga Vocational Training Centre is appealing to concerned authorities to improve its facilities in order to become a fully–fledged technical vocational Centre.
Since its establishment in 1970, very little has been done to improve the school facilities and it was only recently, under the management of Peter Ongo, that some visible improvements have emerged.
As KVC is now the host to the Stanley Gas Forum in Kiunga, Mr Ongo took our reporter Bridgette Komatep on a tour of the Centre.
Kiunga Vocational Training Centre is one of the oldest training institutions in the North Fly District.
It was considered one of the most run-down training centres. Despite this, the Centre offered courses on skills training, mechanics, tourism and hospitality, and catering among others.
It has about 658 students, mostly from the district and other provincial centres.
The real changes happened in 2012. Under the management of Peter Ongo, changes started to take place. New buildings were constructed, painted and given the necessary transformation.
Mr Ongo, a local from Ningerum Station in North Fly District, was a grade six school dropout, but was educated by Malaysian priests who were based at the local Catholic Church in Kiunga.
The biggest problems faced by the school is lack of proper housing for staff as most of them reside in settlements and walk to the Centre every day. On top of this is the delay of funds from the national and provincial government to improve facilities and provision of teaching materials.
The School Administration also raised concerns that there are also incomplete buildings at the Centre as contractors in the past have allegedly misused funds resulting in incomplete work.
They want their concerns to be addressed immediately as every year, they have new influxes of trainees.
But moving forward, Kiunga Vocational Training Centre hopes to upgrade its status to Technical Training Centre to cater for the demand for technical skills that will be derived from the Stanley Gas Condensate Project, once production starts.
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