By now, many schools throughout the country have already received their third quarter of the Government Tuition Fee Subsidy.
However, for schools like Warangoi Secondary School in East New Britain Province the tuition funds received has come as a disappointment and not up to expectation.
This is according to Principal, Mrs. Naomi Vuvu who voiced her concerns after receiving a lesser amount than expected.
“We received a much smaller amount than what we usually receive,” said Mrs. Vuvu when speaking to PNG HAUSBUNG.
The school received its third quarter in the second week of term three with a total of K101, 000 whereas compared to the previous quarters, the school receives to nearly K200, 000 which is just about enough to run the school for a term each given funding quarterly.
“Most times we don’t receive the funds on time and so we need to have enough to cater for the school through to the following term until the next lot of funds come in.”
Though the third quarter came in early in the second week, this has been a struggle for the school who had to ration and cut down on specific expenses.
“We can’t cut down on food or electricity for that matter coz these are essential needs for the school and if worse comes to worse, then we’ll just have to send students home and only cater for those who will be sitting for their National Exams next term.”
With the students now currently on their term three break, Vuvu hopes that they can be able to receive their fourth quarter soon as soon as Term four resumes next week.
“We now rely entirely on government funds to run the school as we now have no project fees imposed and would really appreciate that this issue is sorted out soon.”
Despite that, the grade eight, ten and twelve students are now preparing for the National Exams which is set to take place next month.
Vuvu stated that the students have been attending their remedial classes set out by their teachers and have been preparing well.
“The grade tens will be sitting for their exams in week two of term four, followed by the grade twelve in week three and the grade eights who will be sitting for theirs in week four.”
Meanwhile, a group of students were caught drinking in the dormitory after causing a nuisance including six grade ten students.
According to Vuvu, a decision was made by the school board to have those six students remain in school for the sake of their exams.