OPPOSITION ALARMED BY ONLY 10 % OF GRADE 12s SECURING PLACES IN HIGHER-LEARNING INSTITUTIONS ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// PORT MORESBY: The Opposition, upon learning that only up to 10 % of Grade 12 students are securing places in tertiary institutions next year, stated that it is‘alarming,unacceptable and intolerable’. Opposition Leader Don Polye said when he was the Treasury Minister he advised Prime Minister Peter O’Neill that though the government was boastful about the Free Education policy, it would only achieve sub-optimal results. “I was arguing in cabinet that Free Education policy is only sub-standard. A holistic policy must be developed which the O’Neill government lacks. O’Neill was not even interested in it. O’Neill speaks as if he is interested but in fact he is not. As a result of ignorance, only ten percent of Grade 12 students will enter tertiary institutions,” Polye said. “The free education policy is not the overall catalyst for creating employment for our people. It only improves our people’s level of literacy. It does not solve employment nor skills development problems for our people,” said Polye. “We see the commitment of free education and it sounds good but it is challenging and complex in its entirety. The issue of imparting our children with skills for a better employment is our vast responsibility. This area alone is huge already. You do no need to go into other areas to tax a lot of money when you haven’t completely addressed the issue of integral human development,” he said. Polye stated that the policy does not help to solve skills development for our children and the bottleneck system in securing places in the universities so more work must be done on these areas. “When I was part of the cabinet, I advised O’Neill not to get unnecessary loans like the UBS loan as it is against huge commitments that we have already made as a country for free education by past governments. Instead, the government should open up the bottleneck system in the education sector by building the capacity and the capability of our universities, colleges and the vocational training centres,” said Polye. He said the Opposition as an alternate government has the better answers to the problem. “We have very workable and comprehensive policies to develop integral human development for all and not just 10 percent of Grade 12 students but up to 90 percent”. He said this is the good news that the Opposition can give to PNG. “We want almost 100 percent of young Papua New Guineans to have a paid job in the next 10-15 years on the conditions that they work hard, get themselves skilled and persevere to sustain their livelihoods. We are not talking about building just one airport, school, bridge or hospital”, stated Polye. “We are talking about empowering Papua New Guineans to build infrastructure themselves. We are not in the business of delivering just one project and become boastful about it,” a determined Polye said. He said the Opposition will strive to create employment for everyone by way of imparting the skills and character to sustain them, saying the education and the employment sectors should be made conducive to address the ‘brain-drain’ problem. Polye also said the government cannot boast about infrastructure development when the country’s human resource development is under threat. “This is why I always warn the government about its spending to ensure the economic return must be maximum and not nothing or minimum. When you spend money on things that are of grandstanding and not of economic value, then the other areas of economic value like the education sector suffers considerably,” Polye said. “O’Neill is addressing the wrong areas. He is misfiring everywhere. He is so much concerned about his position, his family businesses, and thinking about benefitting himself by using the position of PM,” a frustrated Polye said. Polye said O’Neill is not addressing the real issues, adding he wants to urge the people of PNG, the systems of governance, and even MPs to realise that the free education policy is only sweet to hear in the ears. “I left the government for these reasons. I am always patient and I was waiting for O’Neill to implement my advice but he was stubborn,” said Polye. Approved for Release ............................................... Don POMB POLYE, CMG, BE (Civil), MBA, MIEPNG (Reg), MP
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 05:17:13 +0000
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