Elizah Palme – EMTV Online, Port Moresby
Twenty young Jimians sat their entry tests yesterday (31 October 2017) for Kainantu School of Nursing at Goroka Bird of Paradise Hotel under the first corporate sponsorship program initiated by the Member of Jimi District, Wake Goi.
This is also the first entry test under the Jimi MP Corporate Sponsorship Program (JMPCSP) which was organised by Jimi District Development Authority in partnership with Kainantu Nursing College. Those who pass the entry tests will be taken in to study with the institutions engaged in 2017.
Speaking to EMTV Online this afternoon, the JMPCSP Coordinator Mr Bund Kapi said the program focuses on two main areas including Health and Education.
“This is to encourage and build our own nurses and teachers to serve in a district which only they can comfortably serve,” Kapi said highlighting issues Jimi District’s health and education sector face when officers either leave or refuse to work in hospitals and schools due to the remoteness of the District. It is believed, the trend in shortages of health and education staff in the District also affects the lives of the people and is a concern for everyone.
Kainantu Nursing College is the first college that JDDA engaged under this program and aims to engage more teachers and nursing colleges in the country to send Jimi students who have been pushed out of formal education due to various reasons. According to Coordinator Kapi, Goroka School of Nursing, Wabag School of Nursing and Wabag Teachers College are next on the list.
Speaking to EMTV Online, MP Wake Goi said he personally went to several colleges in the country to negotiate for spaces for the dropouts. He said the colleges have given him few spaces and he is very happy with the progress and is looking forward to sending more dropouts into colleges.
“Jimi is a remote place and most of our Health Centres closed down because health workers left so we are now sending our own kids who are back at home, to study so they can come back to work in the District,” Goi said. “I do not want any school leavers to hang around my electorate and this is one of my objectives and by 2021, we will have zero school leavers back in the electorate.”
Goi said he will be back in Kainantu on Friday (3 November 2017) to get the results for the first entry test and discuss the fees with the College’s Principal.
The Vice Minister for Department of Works also said he already wrote to the Police Minister requesting for 30 spaces in Police Training College for Jimi grade 12 Students to take up Police training next year.
It is the MP’s vision to address school leavers issue in his electorate as he is prioritising human resources development in his electorate. The MP also confirmed subsidising school fees for students attending tertiary institutions in the country.
Meanwhile, when asked about his commitment to the road networks of Jimi District, the MP said work has already started to upgrade parts of the roads in the District.
