The Provincial Education Division under the East New Britain Provincial Administration (ENBPA) recently conducted a training on the ENB Teachers Online Services program in Pomio District. Pomio was the last of the four districts in the province to undergo the training for its head teachers this week, with the last Local Level Government (LLG), East Pomio, to be covered next week. Pomio District Education Coordinator, Casper Ruga said that the participants are from the LLGs, except for East Pomio and Sinivit LLGs. The training that took place was targeted for head teachers of three Secondary schools, one High school, two TVET centers, about seventy (70) primary and over 300 elementary schools in the seven LLGs of Pomio District. "We in Pomio District tend to have issues with mobile network connectivity, so our participants have been advised to find places that have access to internet connectivity to send their forms.” About forty participants from the five LLGs of Melkoi, West Pomio, Mamusi Yana, Central Pomio and Inland Pomio attended the recent workshop that was held at Palmalmal Secondary school. He said that these forms are not new, it's just that they are doing it online instead of the conventional way of filling up papers and physically bringing them to Kokopo. The leader of the technical team facilitating the three-day workshop and Deputy Head Teacher of Vunalovo Primary school, Mr. John Kou, said that there are nine links on the online program. He stated that the program covers electronic forms for retirement, resumption, online nomination (for Grade nine students), query, absent, suspension, leave, bio data and daily attendance. In terms of lack of network coverage at many schools in the district and parts of the Baining areas, Mr. Kou said that they are providing an excel spreadsheet for them to use, to send their completed online forms through the WhatsApp platform. “The program has been in use for the past month since the first training done for Gazelle District this year and has yielded some positive feedback. We now have teachers being punctual and are present in the classroom, unlike before.” He further advised that in the 2023 MRI (Minimum Rating Index), East New Britain was placed fifteenth out of twenty-two (22) provinces. "This is a drop for ENB, in terms of national examination results, so that's why the Division came up with strategies such as this online program, because a major contributing factor is teachers' attendance.” “So, one of the links is attendance registry for teachers to clock in and clock out. This form enables the Education Division to monitor teachers' attendance." In addition, the online service is cost effective, as teachers can send the electronic forms from the comfort of their schools or location, and on a timely manner too, as often teachers have to travel via sea and plane to bring their documents to Kokopo city.