Member for Kokopo, Mr. Ereman Tobaining Jnr, has expressed serious concerns over the increasing number of secondary school students in East New Britain Province who have been arriving late for classes due to transportation problems. Mr. Tobaining stated that most secondary schools in the province lack proper coordination of school trucks and other vehicles needed to transport students to and from schools. “Principals and teachers must be fair to their students.” “The trucks that the school has are not your private vehicles to carry your families around or to only take teachers shopping. Be considerate and pick up students in the morning and coordinate drop-offs in the afternoon.” “If you drive around town, you will witness many students wandering after 9AM in which most of them are still waiting for transport to get to school.” He stated that some of the affected schools include Warangoi Secondary, George Brown Secondary, and Bitapaka Secondary among others. In addition, he also highlighted the dangerous practice of students hanging onto the back of public vehicles where it is risky and questioned as to where all the school trucks and vehicles are. He emphasized that certain schools had been given vehicles, yet these schools are not sufficiently assisting their students with transportation. Mr. Tobaining has raised this matter several times during assembly sittings and called on local Members of Parliament, the Education Division, and school boards to address this issue urgently. Meanwhile, East New Britain Provincial Member and Chairman of the Provincial Assembly, Michael Marum, echoed similar sentiments, pointing out that many institutions were not utilizing the trucks as intended. Governor Marum said that over the past two years, the provincial government had distributed trucks and vehicles to schools to support their operations, including the transportation of students. He added that the provincial government would initiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with schools to establish a proper body to manage the vehicles in each secondary school. “I suggest that they can open bank accounts and perhaps operate the trucks as Public Motor Vehicles (PMVs), generating revenue for school operations.”