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| Education Minister Nick Kuman. |
By MATTHEW VARI
Sunday, August 28, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)
Education Minister, Nick Kuman has told parliament of the achievements of the Government to roll out its Tuition Fee Free policy, during his statement on the Integrated Tuition Fee Free Policy (TFFP) 2016.
He said with the different views of the policy over the past four years, now in its fifth year- the Government has proved critics wrong despite going through difficult financial difficulties in 2016.
“We have committed to paying their school fees with this year the first and second term total of K301 million 50 per cent total of the 2016 appropriation,” Minister Kuman said.
“We are committed and delivered over K2.3 billion of free education. By the end of this year our total investment in TFF will be K2.7 billion. This will continue into 2017 and beyond.”
“Since its introduction there are many positive impacts. We have real evidence of increased sustained gross enrolment of 7 per cent and by this year we estimate a population of 2.1 million students in schools, we have higher retention of students in schools, and notably an annual growth of 6.7 per cent in the female student enrolment.”
Kuman said with the achievement- his ministry is mindful of more work to be done, which includes infrastructure such as classrooms, teachers houses, library, science laboratories, computers as a result of increased number of student enrolment and retention.
“We have seen teacher to student ratio has increased from 35 to 1 (students to a teacher) to 45 to 1. This government has seen significant growth through the DSIP and PSIP and may I thank all members of this house, the provincial governments, local level governments, - all the stakeholders and the private sector who continue to support the education sector to ensure our young people are better educated,” the minister said.
“Some of the biggest challenges the department is faced with since 2012 we have seen schools being registered fraudulently to obtain funding under the TFF.”
“We have seen schools inflating student enrolments to get more funding under the TFF.”
“There are reports of mismanagement and misapplication of funds by school administrations. There are few classical bad examples.”
“Challenges of misapplication of TTF funds particularly the infrastructure component and the teaching and learning resources are paid to the schools since the inception of the TFF.”
He said his department has taken measures to ensure zero tolerance to schools operating without registration in the country will not attract the TFF.
“Challenge of children enrolment database we have rectified to a stage that there is some reliability three years ago as I report today.”
“I want to assure this parliament that education department has done its best to ensure that the correct student database is obtained.”
“Correct number of registered schools is provided by the district and by the provincial education systems and management of TFF funds is properly administered during the duration of the academic year.”
Kuman added that the management of a large budget over K600 million by the department presented many challenges.
“Nonetheless, we remain steadfast to see that TFF is disbursed to schools to achieve quality education for all.”
“The sustainability of TFF policy remains a challenge, and this is driven by this government and may not be driven by future governments hence legislative changes are now underway through the review of the Education Act to ensure the provisions of free education will be mandatory for any government that comes after this government.”
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