Prime Minister (PM) James Marape has given his assurance that the issue whereby top students missing out on placings in tertiary institutions, is being addressed for the interest of the parents, guardians, and students.
The PM made this known during parliament sitting today when answering questions from the Deputy Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa on the matter.
The deputy opposition leader was concerned about the matter continuing to pop up whereby some students with top marks were given placings in their second or third choices or even missing out completely from getting into universities and colleges.
Tomuriesa said there have been reports already of such cases in his electorate of Kiriwina Goodenough in Milne Bay province after the examinations last year and the subsequent selections.
PM Marape responded that the government is aware of this matter and is working to get this fixed, especially when it comes to the online selection.
“As a government, we are concerned with the high level of dropouts, not only those who have received good marks and missed out, but also all students that have come out of grade twelve, grade ten and grade eight but dropped out.”
The PM said the online selection is being looked at so to fix this matter going forward.
“A couple of years ago the online selection system was introduced, we had one or two occasions of such where student applicants who felt they were qualified, but can’t seem to get into universities or missed out and put in their second and third choice.”
“There was an indication of a review in the process to find out why this glitch has taken place.”
Marape stressed that this is a very genuine concern, and it is being looked at and he will give further update on this in the next parliament season after this current one.