Transcript
KORU ABE: They have no food. Virtually, they have about four hundred kina in their school account. The situation is that, for one reason or another, I do not know, but the fact is the TFF, the free education money, is not forthcoming. Therefore, we'll have no alternative but to send the kids home.
JOHNNY BLADES: Can I ask how long it has been like this, is it a recent problem, the lack of funding?
KA: Recently we've been hit with this funding issue, from last year it became quite an issue. Last year we did not get the full amount of the promised money, and therefore the school incurred debts that we hoped would be paid as soon as the government gave us our TFF funds. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, and the little money we received earlier this year went to paying of last year's debts, and we have nothing to take us through the year. We cannot keep them here. we are going to be in trouble if they go hungry. There's no food. The only food we have rationed is for this week only. And after that there's no more food, and we will have no alternative but to send the kids home.
JB: Have you asked the Education Ministry for help, have you gone to them and said this is the trouble that we're in, what can you do?
KA: This is a national issue, and the government is aware of the kind of problem all schools are facing. I think it has been raised a number of times on the floor of parliament, and the district education officials have got the issue up to the national department. Unfortunately the national government has not come good on that issue.
JB: And after that, you don't have provision for the food that the students require, and everything has to stop?
KA: Yes, and even if we have a little bit of food, the materials for learning like the papers for the photocopier, all the learning materials, will not be paid for. It's not only rations we're talking about. It's also all the other costs associated with running the school.
JB: Teachers, do they get paid?
KA: Yes, definitely, teachers get paid through the national government payroll system. So they're ok.
JB: But the resources for the school to keep running and providing for the kids, that has dried up?
KA: Correct, that has really dried up.
JB: It does seem to be a situation happening with quite a few schools around the country?
KA: That's correct, a number of schools, particularly the boarding schools, they really are affected. They cannot keep the students in school without giving them food and all these things.
The Education Minister Nick Kuman recently admitted there had been delays in government payments to some schools.
He attributed it to pressures on the Education Department's limited funding due to an increase in the number of enrolments caused by the TFF policy.
