Accommodation a challenge for technical schools: Official

ACCOMMODATION is becoming a major challenge for technical institutions in the country, a senior education official says.
Kokopo Business College (KBC) principal John Kari told The National that the college is faced with similar challenges of limited spaces to accommodate students like Port Moresby Technical College and others in the country.
“We cannot send the students away, especially when they have been selected into the institution on merit, so we have been looking at other alternatives to accommodate the students,” he said.
For KBC, he said with the huge intake and limited spaces for accommodation, all female students and the first year male students only are accommodated in the college.
“College administration is looking at renting an accommodation for the second-year male students and that is a very expensive and risky exercise we are taking to accommodate students outside the college premises,” he said.
However, he said at the moment, they have no choice and he appealed to students to remain patient while the administration works out the next step to help them.
Kari also clarified that another reason for the KBC administration to separate continuing male students from the new intake is to maintain discipline.
“The second-years normally influence the new students with their bad habits and traditions like alcohol consumption etc, so this year, we have decided to separate them so the new students would start fresh away from the bad influences,” he said.
Kari said another challenge facing the college has been the standard of student’s accommodation.
“Students’ accommodations at the college does not match the standard of a tertiary institution as there are no proper dormitories with ablution blocks fit to accommodate students,” he said.
He said with the increase in the number of students who graduating from secondary schools every year, the technical institutions would need proper dormitories to cater for increased intakes.
Limited spaces is also a huge concern for students attending the Port Moresby Technical College.
Some students approached The National last week saying that many of them who had travelled in from other centres were stranded because they were not given accommodation due to limited spaces.
All attempts by The National to get comments from college administration and the Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology on the matter had been unsuccessful.