The Provincial Member and Governor for Madang Province, Ramsey Pariwa has announced that he will be sending another batch of students from the province to study in India after he was impressed with the academic performance of the first batch of students selected from Flexible Open Distance Education (FODE) to study in India.
Governor Pariwa was in India during the New Year festive period when he visited Madang students studying in two universities namely Karunya University and Kalasingam University. Upon his visit to the two universities, he was informed that the FODE students from Madang had done exceptionally well in their first semester and all of them would be continuing on to the next semester this year.
Governor Pariwa's trip to India was arranged by the National Education Department through the Flexible Open Distance Education (FODE) secretariat because Madang has a big number of FODE students studying in India.
Furthermore, Governor Pariwa is the first in the country to consider FODE in selecting twenty top students last year from all six districts to travel to study in India.
During his meet and greet session with the Madang students in India, Governor Pariwa said the main aim for him to send them purposely to India was to attain similar knowledge and skills academically like their counterparts from India, so when they return home after completing their studies abroad, they would help him develop Madang Province.
He stated that he is so proud of them for doing well in their studies during the first semester and said they are good ambassadors of Madang and Papua New Guinea.
He further encouraged them not to worry about their fees as it was his job to find money to support their studies.
Governor Pariwa said the next batch of Madang FODE students will be travelling to India in July this year and the number might increase.
The delegation that went to India included the Madang Provincial Education Director, Alphonse Igag, and the Governor’s First Secretary, Francis Tavatuna, who accompanied the Deputy Secretary of Education and the National FODE Principal to visit STEM and FODE students in Karunya University and Kalasingam University.
Madang Provincial Education Director Alphonse Igag, who was also impressed with the results, extended encouragement to the students to focus more on their studies and do well academically since they would be setting the benchmark for FODE in the country.
Their stories in their academy journey is a testament of a visionary leadership set by Governor Pariwa in the education sector in Madang Province.
During the visit Governor Pariwa also discussed with various universities in India to send more FODE and STEM students from Madang.
Under the leadership of Governor Pariwa, Madang province will continue to support fees for Sir Peter Barter Tertiary Education Scholarship Program and FODE this year.
