The La Salle Technical Secondary School in Port Moresby city has gone into full swing of things on the first day of the 2026 academic year.
After its ranking as the number one secondary school in the country in 2025 and topping both the Grade 10 and Grade 12 national examinations, the Catholic church run school had all its teachers and most of the students, including the new intakes, all present today and ready to achieve more this year.
Speaking on day one of classes, La Salle Technical Secondary School Principal Br. Antony Sammy said the school has set clear academic goals aimed at maintaining its high standards across all grade levels, not just national examination classes.
“This year we are going to maintain. So instead of putting a goal to achieve, we have put the word to maintain 98 percentage of pass rate,” he said, adding that parents will be engaged early in the year to support student performance.
The attendance on the first day of school was almost perfect, with fewer than five students absent. The school has also confirmed it has enough teachers and classrooms to cater for the entire year despite ongoing national concerns about certificate delays and the rising cost of delivering quality education.
Br. Sammy addressed student enrolment, staffing ratios, infrastructure development, and government funding support, confirming the school currently caters for 348 Grade 9 students, 320 Grade 10 students, 224 Grade 11 students, and 208 Grade 12 students, and the classroom capacity is enough to cater for all following the construction of eight new classrooms last year.
“We got enough classroom for last year, we built the eight classrooms, so we have enough classroom for grade nine to 12. Teacher ratio with objective position has been given by DSE since last year. So, we have enough teachers and they have enough teaching load,” said Br. Antony
Addressing national concerns over delayed Grade 12 certificates, Br. Sammy said the issue was not isolated to La Salle.
“This year is really a delay, but it’s nothing to do with the school. It’s probably something is delayed… the printing of certificates is all throughout the country,” he said, adding that Grade 12 certificates were expected by end of this week.
He said tertiary institutions have accepted attainment certificates in the meantime, allowing students to proceed with enrolment.
On school fees, Br. Sammy confirmed La Salle does not charge project fees, apart from approved agency fees and the parent support fund.
“We don’t keep much burden to our parents. Whatever the board decided to get from the parents, we get it,” he said.
He credited the De La Salle Brothers for supporting infrastructure development, saying contributions of K400,000 to K500,000 annually have helped maintain a positive learning environment for students.
However, Br. Sammy raised concerns about government funding, saying the Tuition Fee Subsidy (TFF) allocations remain insufficient for city schools. He said while the subsidy estimates support at K3 per child per day, the actual cost of educating a student is closer to K20 per day.
“With the TFF, the school gets about 700,000 to 800,000 but our school's actual budget is close to 4 million,” he said. “TFF is very good support but honestly speaking it’s not sufficient because the child per day is like K20.00 while for TFF funds ratio is K3.00 for a child per day.”
He said the school spends heavily on printing learning materials due to its inability to provide textbooks for every student.
Despite these challenges, Br. Sammy acknowledged the government’s efforts.
“Government has been trying their best to support and give free education. I don’t deny that.”
La Salle Technical Secondary School continues to operate specialized academic and vocational streams, positioning itself as one of the few schools in the country offering multiple pathways for students who do not immediately progress to tertiary institutions.
