The UPNG West New Britain Students Association have recently carried out a major project in West New Britain Province. The project consists of two parts, which includes an academic excellence awareness talk as well as a Book Drive program. Both the programs were carried out in five schools in each of the LLGs in the Province.
The 2021 President of the UPNG WNBSA, Zeal Dau, said that as of the first program, the WNBSA conducted an academic excellence awareness to talk to students about the importance of education.
According to Dau, this was to help students make informed decisions about their choices of studies, specifically to tertiary institutions such as UPNG.
“One of the key message that was addressed to the students during this awareness was the entry requirements and courses of UPNG. Additional to that, we also addressed the behaviour and attitudes of students towards their education.”
According to Dau, the awareness itself was carried out in three schools and was initially planned out for five days, however, was decided in the end that the program be carried out for just two days.
“We attended three secondary schools which were, Poinini Catholic Agricultural Technical Secondary School, Hoskins and Kimbe Secondary School. The aim was to educate, motivate and challenge the students to work hard and secure a space at the University.”
Apart from the awareness talk, the Book Drive was also part of the association’s program.
Dau said that this was the second phase of the program where the association distributed mainly reading books to the students.
“As for this part of the program, the schools in which we distributed the books to were selected randomly. The schools included, Ruango Junior High, Talasea High, Mosa High Ceneka High and Ceneka Secondary.”
Dau said that so far, the two programs carried out were so far a success. He added that the teachers of those schools responded positively by organizing their students.
“We as an association, are happy with the outcome we received, mainly from the first phase of our program, where the talk we gave to the students was helpful to them. The students were keen to know more about the University’s Courses and requirements.”
