Another school, like many schools nationwide with TFF concerns, is St. Therese Primary.
The school has had to “squeeze out” funds from the first component of TFF funds in order to purchase exercise books for their 1,700 students.
Chairlady of the School Board, Eileen Lala, said they are burdened with the demands of keeping the school operating after receiving only 40 percent of the TFF component.
Students of St Therese Primary School in Port Moresby, Parents, Teachers and Board members demonstrated what it meant to be accountable, transparent, and equitable with TFF Funded resources; in this case exercise books manufactured and packaged by Treid PNG under an agreement with the government.
In line with the governments Implementation Policy parents now sign to acknowledge their child received all eight exercise books as required.
But behind the cheers of these innocent children is a school administration drowning in demands to keep the school operational.
The TFF funds that used to come in one component now is delivered three fold; 40% for Administrative costs, 30% to cover Commodity costs and another 30% to cover Infrastructure.
So far, schools like St Therese nationwide reported having only received the 40% component Administrative Costs.
With the delay in the rest of the TFF funding, the school has had to split the available cost and dig into its own accounts to purchase the exercise books.
But that has also drained funds needed to maintain a healthy and conducive environment for students.
But that is not where their problems end.
Some parents confused by the concept of free education, and the recent orders by the Education Department barring schools from charging project fees, has put a school like St. Therese in an even more desperate situation.
Parents are refusing to chip in to renovate the badly deteriorating classrooms.
They have been led to believe “TFF means free education” and that schools are charging additional fees under the impression that they have already received the full TFF funds.
“Our quota does not decrease, they increase every year. Even though the quotas have been up, the limit (of students) per classroom are 40 to 45, our enrollments have exceeded those limits.”
She said the school is now depending on the schools canteen as a back-up source of income.
The School board also looks to form a school Alumni Committee to raise additional funds to improve the gradually deteriorating school.
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