Acting Secretary for Education Dr Joseph Pagelio has announced the 2011 term and holiday dates for the national education system.
Dr Pagelio said that in 2011, Term 1 for all teachers started on Monday, Jan 31.
During that week, heads of institutions sort out enrolments with governing bodies and teachers prepare for the commencement of classes from Monday, Feb 7, 2011.
Term 1 ends on Thursday, April 21 as Friday, April 22 is Good Friday public holiday. Students and teachers will have one-week break, which includes public holidays Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday on April 23, 24 and 25 respectively.
Term 2 will commence for all teachers and students on Monday, May 2 and end on Friday, July 8.
Teachers will have a week’s holiday while the students will have two weeks.
Teachers participating in the national population census will have the option of organising NIST week during the year.
During the term, there are two public holidays, namely Queens Birthday on Monday, June 13 and National Remembrance Day on Saturday, July 23.
Term 3 commences for all teachers and students on Monday, July 25 and ends on September 23.
Term 3 holiday is one week from Monday, Sept 26 to Friday, Sept 30.
The only public holiday is Independence Day which is on Friday, Sept 16.
Term 4 for all teachers and students begins on October 3 and ends on Friday, Dec 9.
Holiday for both teachers and students starts on Monday, Dec 12.
In 2012, teachers commence Term 1 on Monday, January 27 and students on Monday, February 3, 2012.
Other important dates that schools need to plan meaningful activities to observe include National Book Week from Aug 1 – 5, National Literacy Week from Sept 5 – 9 and National Education Week from Oct 3 – 7.
Dr Pagelio has urged all schools, teachers, parents and the general public to take note of the important school calendar dates so that they can prepare for the start of the 2011 school year and also plan in advance to observe them
11,000 vacancies with only 1,200 teachers available
By DULCIE OREKE
THERE is a crisis looming for the Education Department with the 2011 school year just a fortnight away, The National reports.
There are vacancies for 11,000 teachers nationwide and, with only 1,200 leaving teachers colleges to join the service, there would be a massive shortage of teaching staff, the PNG Teachers Association said yesterday.
Association general secretary Ugwalubu Mowana said that there had also been a huge flight of teachers from the service, with 1,700 teachers resigning last year.
He said rural-based schools would be the hardest hit as teachers preferred to teach in urban schools.
Mowana said the teaching services commission and the government must take responsibility for the flight of teachers and the plight of the education system.
He said most of them were leaving because of poor terms and conditions and the government’s careless attitudes towards the needs of the teachers.
He said the flight of teachers had to do with difficulties in transportation to and from schools, poor infrastructure including accommodation, high cost of living and long delays in processing payments for teachers.
Mowana said last year, 1,751 teachers resigned from the teaching service. This is 500 more than new graduating teachers.
He said the government’s universal basic education (UBE) initiative depended upon the availability of teachers and that the policy might have a still-birth unless this situation was arrested and soon.
Teachers faced tough conditions in some of the remotest parts of the country where, often, they were the only face of the government.
Often, they went without pay for up to six months at a time and when they arrived in towns to collect their pay, it would either be stolen or misplaced.
“If government wants to see reform reach remote areas, they must improve teachers’ terms and conditions,” Mowana said.
A senior teaching services commission official agreed that there were insufficient teachers to fill current vacancies.
TSC commissioner Rose August said yesterday that most of the vacancies were located in remote parts of PNG.
According to August, about 43,000 teachers nationwide would know the status of their 2011 teaching posts soon.
She said postings were the responsibility of individual provincial education boards (PEB) which would inform its teachers at the end of last year.
By
THE office of higher education has corrected misconceptions over school fees and selection for higher education, The National reports.
OHE director-general Dr William Tagis yesterday said that the office had no control over the setting of school fees or selection into tertiary institutions.
He said the measurement services unit of the Department of Education was responsible for marking all end-of-year examination papers.
“This done, the paper are then sent to the OHE for ranking,” Tagis said.
“After ranking them from highest to the lowest, the list containing the students’ names and marks are then sent to the universities and colleges to select their students based on the OHE rankings.”
The explanations by Tagis came about following media reports this week that aggrieved parents of students in Western Highlands had planned to stage a sit-in protest along the main Highlands Highway after their children, some of whom had scored above-average marks, were not selected for tertiary education.
The parents had alleged cheating and foul play in some schools.
Tagis said while he understood that the
He said a resource study would be conducted by OHE this year to review the school fee increases over the last five years.
He said this would provide an informative economic analysis for the government to see if the increases were fair or not and take action.
Tagis said on the questions of scholarships at UPNG, students would have to sort that out with their respective schools.
“Scholarships are only awarded from lists provided by the different schools at UPNG.
“Students with queries should go and see their respective schools and not the OHE.”
They said the Northern command also did not receive any brief on the deployment exercise, prompting speculations that the police headquarter had acted independently without due respect and consideration for its regional headquarters.
As a result, the Vanimo police station was closed yesterday morning and would remain so until all the differences and problems were resolved professionally.
“I was left in the dark and so was the Northern command,”
He said the whole operation was kept very quiet until the arrival of a shipment of 14 vehicles and three boats.
“The vehicles were all tinted 10-seater
Kasieng’s comments stemmed from a stand-off between local police in Vanimo and members of the Port Moresby-based special task force currently in Vanimo for operation Sunset Merona.
The differences had also resulted in the bashing of a local police traffic officer who is nursing a broken nose and is having breathing difficulties.
The incident reportedly happened in front of the Vanimo police station, with Kasieng a witness himself.
He said the claim on national television yesterday that the victim had been driving an unregistered vehicle was “a pack of lies”.
“My policeman was on duty and driving a registered vehicle,” Kasieng said.
The PPC said he would push for his policeman to be airlifted to
“The actions of these policemen fall nothing short of mob rule.
“They are criminals and should not be involved in such operations.”
The provincial police commander said police files had been completed and prepared following investigations into the assault case.
“Police will arrest and charge the four men allegedly involved when they are brought in, hopefully tomorrow (today),” Kasieng said.
He said police and the local community were also demanding that provincial administrator Joseph Sungi turn up in public and explained the whole exercise.
“My policemen are very upset”
“They also completely left us out in the operation,” Kasieng said.
TEN people have died reportedly from an unknown disease in remote villages along the Owen Stanley Range in Northern, The National reports.
This has caused panic and a health concern among other villagers and nearby areas as the disease causes extreme swelling to various parts of the body then they die.
Public servants, who live in
Located in the Fafia local level government of Musa, 10 villagers in Upper Musa along the two main rivers had contracted the disease, causing the Middle and
The symptoms include painful swellings from the legs, then it spreads to the arms and hands, the stomach and then the head before it kills the person.
Musa villagers are concerned because there was a lack of medical personnel to attend to those affected.
“The health facilities, such as the buildings are there, they are rundown.
“They have been I that state for the past 12 or so years,” one public servant said.
He said because of this, and the lack of drugs, there were no health workers around.
Leaders in Middle and
They are fearful that the disease may be water-borne as they are located downstream from the affected area, and that the water may be contaminated with bacteria.
The source said the inability to get medical assistance to these people was a case of negligence and ignorance by the provincial government.
“This also applies to other basic services such as setting up and running a school in this area”.
THE government has given the green light for what is hoped to be world’s first sea floor mining venture, The National reports.
It has granted a 20-year mining lease to Canadian company, Nautilus Minerals, to mine gold and copper deposits in a 59km2 section of the
The Solwara1 one site, as it is known, is off the coast of New Ireland and about 50km north of Rabaul, Nautilus Minerals CEO Stephen Rogers told Radio
In
The PNG government now had one month to decide if it would exercise its option to take a stake in the project of anything up to 30%.
Production is expected to begin in late 2013 or in 2014.
“As this industry emerges, it is going to present a significant contribution to the PNG economy,” he added.
He said early this month Nautilus announced more drilling results from Solwara1 which showed a combined indicated and inferred resource of about 1.3 million tonnes a year.
“Any capital that we have to put into the project, going forward … the government would have to put up its 30% share.
“Initially, it has an outlay of approximately US$20 million to US$25 million which represents the investment costs to date on the exploration, the environmental work and the development work, that has been carried out so far on the project,” he said.
Asked what sort of stake the government was considering,
“As the project is offshore, you don’t have to deal with landowners. Does that mean PNG and its citizens will not get as much income from deep sea mining as it does from mining on land?
“Not at all. The same opportunities exist for people to participate in this project by providing services to the company, and in terms of the royalties going back into the country, they are exactly the same as any land-based mine.
“So while we are not impacting people and having to move them from their homes, the general benefit back into the country is very similar.”
 |
| Solomon delegation leader Dr Ravindra Joshi (left) and director extension services Michael Ho’ota listening to presentation by NARI project leaders at the NARI head office at Bubia outside Lae |
By ISAAC NICHOLAS
THE border security operation, Sunset Merona, got off to a bad start with a Vanimo police traffic officer hospitalised and a stand-off between Sandaun police and the Port Moresby-based police task force on border duties, The National reports.
Acting Police Commissioner Anthony Wagambie last night denied knowledge of the incident.
However, there were also unconfirmed reports that a PNG task force member was shot at and wounded by the Indonesian armed forces.
The man was admitted at the
The border operation had also attracted the attention of Indonesian authorities after Wagambie allegedly led a contingent of uniformed PNG police task force members into Indonesian territory to shop last Saturday.
The traffic officer had been hospitalised.
Sources from Vanimo said the incident had led to a stand-off between
The situation remained tense as Kasieng demanded the arrest of the police personnel involved in the attack.
The incident comes after Wagambie had attracted the ire of the Indonesian soldiers by crossing the border at Wutung with his men in full uniform into Batas market on the Indonesian side of the border to do shopping.
Indonesian official sources claimed that a PNG security force commander, going into Indonesian territory in full uniform, was a violation of international laws and border agreements unless it was a joint exercise between the two countries.
The Indonesian embassy, however, played down the border crossing issue as the Batas market was popular for shopping but, because of the PNG border exercise and because the police commissioner was involved, the crossing had raised eyebrows, particularly that of the Indonesian military.
Responding to questions, the embassy confirmed that last Saturday, some PNG police officers had crossed over into Batas to buy some souvenirs at the traditional Indonesian market.
An embassy spokesman said the tour was guided by a Mr Sutar (Indonesian consulate) and PNG border liaison officer Moses Poi.
The spokesman said this was allowed under current arrangements between the two countries.
Wagambie, when asked last night, said he was curious about the kind of trade going on at Batas and wanted to see for himself.
But, before crossing the border into Batas, he had asked Poi to seek permission from the Indonesian authorities to allow him a tour of the market facility.
However, the embassy spokesman stressed that the Indonesian government monitored the border constantly and would appreciate advance information on any activity, official or otherwise, which involved crossing the border.
By JEFFREY ELAPA
PRIME Minister Sir Michael Somare, who voluntarily stepped aside following his referral and pending appointment of a leadership tribunal, resumed duties at 1.30pm yesterday, The National reports.
The National had been told that a number of high-level meetings were conducted last weekend amid pressure from the ruling party executives.
With the prime minister back in his office, it was presumed safe for the government to go to the polls next year after getting National Alliance party matters resolved and knowing that they were intact.
Prime Minister’s chief of staff Paul Bengo said in a short statement yesterday that Sir Michael officially resumed at 1.30pm after almost five weeks holidaying since Dec 10 last year.
He stated that after almost 40 years in parlimaent, Sir Michael had outstanding incurred leave which he had decided to take late last year and for a duration of five weeks; and he had decided to resume duties yesterday.
Bengo said Sir Michael’s first duty after resuming office included calling on the new governor-general, Michael Ogio, a briefing by acting Prime Minister Sam Abal and he later chaired a special national executive council meeting yesterday afternoon.
He said the prime minister would also officiate at the opening of the new Wewak town market and jetty projects jointly funded by the PNG and Japanese governments later this week.
A new police post would also be opened.
However, Bengo did not go into any of the power play meetings held last weekend or the high-profiled ministerial meetings understood to have taken place.
The media was advised of a conference yesterday but that was later cancelled with no reasons given.
Bengo, when asked of a possible cabinet reshuffle, responded that there was no need for any major reshuffle with just one vacancy in existence, which is the ministry of higher education, science and technology.
The ministry was vacated by Ogio after he was elected as the ninth governor-general of
However, with the parliament adjourned to May, it was likely that the new governor-general would have to wait until then to be sworn in and depart for
According to legal sources, Speaker Jeffrey Nape would be acting governor-general while Francis Marus would remain as acting speaker until the swearing-in of Ogio.
By JULIA DAIA BORE
RETIRED judge Mark Sevua last Thursday apologised to the lawyers and litigants involved in 40 court cases that he leaves incomplete as a result of leaving the judiciary, The National reports.
Sevua said he had been about to finalise his decision on the hearing of the fate of the completed report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Finance Department when he was discontinued from holding his office as a judge by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission.
He officially left office on Jan 6.
Sevua told media personnel late last Thursday that in addition to the Finance Inquiry, he had outstanding a further 39 rulings and decisions.
Among them was the other high profile case of former chief secretary Isaac Lupari who questioned the validity of his dismissal from office.
Lupari’s lawyers had flown to Alotau where Justice Bernard Sakora granted leave for judicial review in Alotau and the application for judicial review came before Sevua who said last Thursday that he heard the substantive matter and had then reserved his decision to a later date.
He had been about to hand that decision down when he was terminated from serving as a judge resulting from the Judicial and Legal Service decision last Sept 28 not approving his request for extension by five years .
Sevua expressed his regrets over the matters now having been returned to the court registry.
He said: “So I have left quite a number of cases - about 40 cases (incomplete). And I will say this, I am very sorry to the litigants and the lawyers for this to happen.
“I think I have to say that on record, I am very sorry that these cases have had to be returned to the registry, for other judges to rehear and deal with them.
“Last week (two weeks ago) I had my staff return all those files and a list of those files to the registrar and, you know, I am very sorry, that those people have waited so long and they did not get any judgements done on those cases.
“I hope they will be given priority.”
ACTING police commissioner Tony Wagambie yesterday announced that a special task force that had been investigating violent crimes, including sexual assault, in Porgera, Enga, has began making arrests, The National reports.
“Following three months of intensive investigations, members of the RPNGC investigations taskforce assigned to this issue have now begun to arrest alleged offenders,” Wagambie said.
“After receiving solid intelligence on these matters from the mine managers Barrick Gold and their independent investigators, our task force has moved quickly to identify alleged offenders involved in these matters,” he said.
The investigation has been supported by the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV), Barrick Gold and the local community leaders.
He said the latest arrests were a warning to those who committed violent acts against others that they too would be brought to justice.
Wagambie said investigations into other reported cases, including alleged abuses by members of the RPNGC in the same area were continuing and he expected more arrests in the coming weeks and months.
“No-one is above the law, even members for the constabulary. Make no mistake – we are coming for them too,” Wagambie said.
The PJV in a statement yesterday also announced that it had sacked employees who had allegedly been involved in or had knowledge of but did not report assaults against women and others.
The terminations were a result of a thorough internal investigation and are part of several actions Barrick and PJV were now undertaking.
More people are expected to be sacked.
“The mine took immediate actions after the disturbing results of an internal investigation into allegations of assaults and other serious crimes. We have terminated employees who were found to have breached our strict code of conduct regarding employee behaviour,” Mark Fisher, Barrick PNG’s executive general manager said.
“The PJV is taking a zero tolerance policy regarding these incidents. Those who have been terminated are those who have been credibly implicated in criminal activity, alleged to have misled investigators, or were aware of these alleged crimes and did not come forward.”
When the PJV received credible allegations in June 2010, PJV contacted Wagambie and requested a criminal investigation be undertaken.
The PJV asked former chief ombudsman Ila Geno to conduct an independent inquiry into alleged violence against women cases and report findings directly to the constabulary.
Barrick also conducted an internal investigation which involved a 15-member independent investigation team.
This outside investigative team spent several months at the mine interviewing more than 650 employees and conducting a comprehensive investigation of personnel and procedures.
“Wagambie announced today, the police have made arrests and charged some of these individuals with breaking the laws of this country. We have been working in close cooperation with the PNG police and we will continue to provide information and support to aid in their criminal investigation,” Fisher said.
“We condemn these alleged crimes in the strongest possible terms and wish to see anyone involved brought to justice under PNG law.”
“The PJV does not tolerate any form of violence or human rights abuse – against women or men - and we expect any employee who sees or hears about such acts to immediately report what they know to the appropriate authorities,” Fisher said.
By SAMUEL RAITANO
THE Chimbu health department has reported malaria cases to be widespread in the remote Karimui district in Chimbu with an unconfirmed report of 10 lives already lost, The National reports.
Chimbu principal health adviser Cain Tommy, while reporting the matter, said a team of health officials from the Kundiawa General Hospital were flown yesterday to assist medical staff on the ground following the alert made to the headquarter.
Tommy said 10 officials were sent to assist the staff in the five existing medical facilities at Bomai, Kapi, Karimui, Negabo and Aya.
It was also being reported that flu had hit the district at the same proportion, but it was not confirmed if it was linked to the prevalence of malaria.
Tommy thanked Karimui-Nomane MP Posi Menai, the provincial administration and the district administration for assisting in the charter of aircraft to deliver medical supplies to the affected area at a cost of about K50, 000.
Tommy, who had once served in the district from 2002 to 2007, said the area was rugged and it was a difficult task working in those areas especially during wet seasons.
He commended the medical staff for working tirelessly and faithfully in giving health services to the people in much need, under harsh conditions.
Other basic services to the district were also said to have deteriorated and government attention was a need for the people in Karimui.
Attempts to contact the provincial administrator was unsuccessful, however, the situation of containing the malaria cases were said to be going well.
The US$3 million programme will be conducted by the secretariat of the Pacific community (SPC) and National Fisheries Authority within the exclusive economic zone for three years.
Tagging projects to better understand various aspects of tuna in the Pacific were done before.
The recovered data informed stock assessments of important tuna species and its main goal was to sharpen the accuracy of the estimates regarding how much tuna can be sustainably fished and help establish scientifically-based catch limits.
As of July of last year, nearly 15% of all tags had been retrieved and recaptures continued at a variety of unloading points.
Some 4,000 fish stomachs were collected and almost 3,000 Fatmeter measurements made to indicate the condition of the fish.
Analysis on about half of the stomachs showed nearly 200 different species out of some 55,000 counted prey.
The SPC's programme has used almost 1,000 "archival tags" that get placed inside the fish belly and trail a pencil-length antenna on their outside.
The tags then gave precious details pertaining to the tuna's behaviour, feeding times, depth habits and other factors.
Archival tags were considerably more useful than conventional tags, which offer information on growth, migration and mortality.
Tagged tuna have already been captured as far as 4,500km from the point where they were originally released, and can show up in locations as far removed as
SPC scientists have also travelled overseas to form collaborative arrangements with members of the tuna sector throughout the region as part of the follow-up to the main scheme.
Thus far, about 10% of the archival tags have been recovered and more are awaited.
This represents about 5,500 days of data for the stock assessment and modelling section of OFP, offering insights into tuna behaviour including:
 |
Shacks and rooms offering board and lodging - the abode of our fringe dwelling professionals but in conditions bordering on abject poverty- often with no running water or electricity, often in unsanitary conditions which would make even their forefathers in their tribal villages cringe
|
 |
Sweet potato (kaukau) is a staple food in PNG, especially the
|
 |
| From left are Prof Anthony Youdeowei and Solomon Islanders Peter Trena and Rosemary Alabae discussing extension materials needs with farmers at Kamba village, outside Madang town |
 |
| Participants at the CTA/IRETA Extension Training Workshop pose for a group photo at Madang Resort Hotel.-Pictures by JACKSON KAUMANA, DAL Information Branch |
An independent review of AusAID is currently underway.
Details of this review are at http://www.aidreview.gov.au/index.html.
Submissions can be made in writing or via e mail.
Submissions to the review must be received before February 2, 2011 and the review's report will be available in April 2011.
The following are a synopsis of some recommendations that have been made in a submission to the Review Committee on AusAID.
Recommendations
· AusAID has not been getting down to an operational level that is actually helping the average Papua New Guinea person;
· Before any aid future programme is commenced, publically-reported benchmarks for evaluating programme achievement must be established;
· AusAID programmes must detail what ongoing skills transfer has been achieved by each programme and how this has been assessed;
· Existing expertise is to be canvassed and utilised in programme design and operational implementation;
· Determining and involving the actual stakeholders at the lowest level in the implementation of any future programme;
· Involve lower level government (LLG) in the implementation and monitoring of service provision. This will provide a direct link between aid recipients and those who are responsible for proving the funding;
· Non-government organisations (NGOs) should be directly included in service delivery projects;
· Local stakeholders are to be established and incorporated into any aid programme implementation phase to ensure ongoing ownership and value adding;
· Bypass corruption at all levels above those who need the services;
· Closely monitor and audit all programmes in Australia with at least two or more independent reporting structures and established risk management procedures. Digital photographs and the internet can be used to evaluate many programmes. There is no need for large numbers of overseas staff and consultants to be located on site.
By ALISON ANIS
PUBLIC servants anticipating a pay increase may have to wait until the Department of Personnel Management (DPM) and Industrial Relations Division (IRD), the two bodies tasked to look after public service payouts, sort out the implementation of the 18% increase announced by the national government last year, The National reports.
Officers from DPM and IRC are at loggerheads over certain responsibilities regarding the implementation of the pay increase for public servants.
DPM when contacted last Friday reported that it was IRD’s responsibility and that they were waiting for information from IRD before they could advice on the status of the payments.
Internal Relations on the other hand commented that no step had been taken to address the issue because they have not received any instructions from the secretary’s office.
“Our office has been bombarded with phone calls from public servants wanting to know when the increase will come into place,” a staff from IRD told The National.
“We told them that we cannot advise until we have received directions from the secretary’s office regarding pay increase. Right now there is nothing to implement because we have not received any instructions from the secretary.”
The DPM secretary was reportedly on leave and could not be contacted to give an update on the proposed pay increments.
An officer from DPM said IRD was the appropriate body to deal with the pay increments.
“Call the IRD, they are the appropriate division. We don’ have that kind of information our desk,” a senior officer with DPM said then asked to give an update on the situation.
A senior public servant has raised concerns about the delayed increments stressing that he had not seen any changes in his fortnightly wages.
“The minister promised us the increase last year and this was budgeted for 2011. Pay 1 for Jan has begun but nothing has been done yet. Why is it taking so long to bring into effect the increase since leaders are able to easily increase their payment by 52%?” he said.
