New Ireland Governor’s School of Excellence Program to be Gradually Phased Out

 

A total of 27 students will be severely affected by the discontinuation of the New Ireland Government’s Governor’s School of Excellence Program.

 

This comes after Lihir Royalties that is the major source of funding have been transferred to the Namatanai and Kavieng District Authorities.

 

The implications for the students include their parents not being able to afford the International Standard Education School fees, Securing spaces in other NIP schools will be difficult as they are already full, safe and timely transfer of students academic record remains a risk, unless it is managed well by higher Authorities such as the head of the Department of Education and Provincial Education Board.

 

To help remedy the foreseeable implications the New Ireland Government during its Provincial Executive Council meeting on Tuesday moved to financially support the current batch of Scholarship students until they complete their Education at the OLSH International School.

 

The Governor’s School of Excellence was established in 2019. The program is part of the seven components of the New Ireland Government’s Free and Subsidized Education Policy. This program has two key components School of Excellence and Teacher Excellence Program.

 

The goal of the program is to increase the level of student’s academic performance  and teacher performance in the province. Which has been successfully achieved and ideally this Government wishes to continue these scholarships  but funds used for Education subsidies and other projects were transferred illegally over to the two District Development Authorities making it impossible to sustain budgeted projects and programs.

 

The Scholarships are offered to the top performing primary and secondary school students from the outer and more rural parts of the province to undertake the excellence program implemented or run in an international standard learning environment.

 

Updating the Provincial Executive Council, CEO for Government Subsidy Mactil Bais said “Since 2019 the New Ireland Government has gone way beyond its target by issuing 94 scholarships, almost 100% more.”

 

In 2020 nine pioneer scholars graduated with a grade 12 certificate. “ They all performed exceptionally well and secured placements in various Tertiary Institutions across the country.

 

New Ireland is now ranked one of the top five performing provinces with its grade 10’s ranked 3^rd  in the country and grade 12’s ranked 5th in the country.

 

This is a big improvement from its ranking of second last in the country 10 years ago.

 

NIP Media Unit

 

Picture Caption: Governor Sir J with Students from the OLSH Governors school of Excellence during a recent meeting at the New Ireland Assembly.