With the national education goal to live no child behind, The Sacred Heart Secondary School in Tapini, Central province will soon get a facelift with hopes of increasing enrolments for grades 11 and 12.
The new facilities will help the school to deliver high quality secondary education to students in the district and reduce the challenges associated with travelling out of the district to attain the same level of education.
The project was launched recently by the Australian High Commissioner John Feakes alongside the local member for Goilala, Casmiro Aia.
High Commissioner Feakes said, Sacred Heart is the only secondary school in Goilala district and they are delighted that they can continue supporting the school to deliver high quality secondary education.
“A good education sets a strong foundation for the development of future leaders and supports PNG’s future prosperity and growth,” said Feakes.
Funded through an Australian Incentive Fund grant of K10.18 million, the construction and upgrade of new and existing buildings aims to improve student performance and skills training for youths.
The facilities are also designed to accommodate the needs of female students with improvements to health and hygiene in on-campus accommodation.
These includes 48 additional boarding spaces for girls, two new teacher’s houses, refurbish 12 existing teachers’ houses, administration building extension, two new female ablution blocks, school clinic and day student ablution.
Australia has previously provided grants of approximately K20 million towards the upgrading and expanding the school’s infrastructure.
Collectively, these projects have allowed the school to increase enrolments, offer more subjects including in computing and IT, and graduate its first ever year 12 students in 2019.
The school also progressed to become a secondary school.
The benefits of the project have extended beyond the school, with the hydropower station and water supply for Tapini restored and upgraded following landslides in the 1980s.
The current project is also exploring options to expand the hydro-power capacity to deliver electricity to more essential buildings in Tapini station such as government buildings.
The Incentive Fund is an Australian Government competitive grants program that seeks to improve social and economic development outcomes for Papua New Guinea communities.