By Sharlyne Eri – EMTV News, Lae Parents of students attending Taraka Primary School in Lae have funded four classrooms to address the issue of overcrowding. The school opened the four-in-one-building, which also houses a new canteen and an office space yesterday. Taraka Primary School is a level eight school, however, it only has six streams due to limited classrooms. The school was supposed to advance to seven streams this year but had decided to address the issue of limited classrooms first. This means that the school currently has six classes of each grade instead of having eight. Chairman of the School’s Board, Jack Serum commended parents for their initiative. He said the new classrooms bring relief to teachers who normally look after 50 to 60 students in a class. “We are currently running six streams, meaning we have six classes of grades three up to eight.” “Because we were short of classrooms we were squeezing in the grade threes, however, with these new classrooms, all the six grade three classes will have classrooms,” Mr. Serum said. Established in the 1960s, the school took in enrollment of 1, 700 students this year. Head Teacher, Thomas Bweheni, said this initiative paves the way for a bigger vision that the school has, to make Taraka Primary a model school in the province. The new building was completed last year and was opened yesterday after additional materials such as desks and tables were purchased. Constructed at a cost of K21, 200, the new building is the initiative of parents. ]]>
Parents Fund Classrooms to Address Overcrowding
