Yangoru-Suassia tertiary students set to receive subsidies

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, January 25, 2015 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

WITH the 2015 academic year just around the corner- students and parents from the Yangoru-Suassia District in the East Sepik Province will now have a lighter burden following the announcement of a tertiary school fee subsidy scheme.

The announcement was made by the Member and Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru.

“The joint district planning and priorities committee has resolved in principle that we will now issue a new Tertiary School Fee Subsidy Scheme,” Mr Maru said.

“For those students who come from there, the cocoa pod borer has completely wiped out our cocoa crops so parents in my district are really struggling to meet school fees, so as of the 28th we are meeting now to announce to determine the subsidy per student.”

“We will then make the announcement on the institutions that qualify and what we will be paying per student to assist them with school fees.”

He highlighted that the district was not paying for the entire fees but only a portion would be determined to be paid to institutions listed and only for people living in the district.

“This scheme is only for villagers in my district, not for those who are working in town and other provinces- this is specifically for those who reside in Yangoru Suasia electorate who are ordinary villagers who have no means of support except depending on Cocoa,” Maru explained.

“They will be getting a application form from their village counselor who will witness to say that they have been in the village, which will be part of our system of audit to see those who qualify are able to benefit from the scheme.”

“Finally I want to say to the parents when we start receiving funding from the government for the 2015 budget allocation, that is when we will be able to pay the subsidies directly to the schools like UPNG will have a bulk cheque and not to the parents.”

He said that subsidy payments will be made around March or April when the district receives the first portion of is DSIP funds for the year 2015.

The member added that an initial allocation of K1 million has been considered, however, the funding could be increased once final figures were calculated and agreed upon.