THE Government is pouring K500 million into universities to roll out and upgrade programmes for increased intakes of students coming off secondary schools, Higher Education, Science and Research Technology Minister David Arore said yesterday.
Arore, who was given back his ministry yesterday after he voluntarily stepped down to clear his name, said the Government was looking at alleviating the bottleneck that had been imposed by the introduction of its own free education policy.
He said the primary and secondary schools had increased the number of students as a result of the Government’s free education policy but the spaces in tertiary institutions in PNG was very small.
The good news, he said, was that the Government had decided to correct that deficiency by increasing funding to tertiary institutions in PNG.
“I must admit that we are revamping higher education,” he said.
“I must also inform this house that as part of the commitment, the National Executive Council has approved the release of K500 million for the rollout and rehabilitation of programmes at the seven universities in the country,” he said.
Arore made the comments while responding to questions without notice from the Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu yesterday in parliament.
Undialu asked why several institutions in PNG were charging more than K30,000 for tuition fees and if the Government had plans to regulate the fees charged.
Arore, who was given back his ministry yesterday after he voluntarily stepped down to clear his name, said the Government was looking at alleviating the bottleneck that had been imposed by the introduction of its own free education policy.
He said the primary and secondary schools had increased the number of students as a result of the Government’s free education policy but the spaces in tertiary institutions in PNG was very small.
The good news, he said, was that the Government had decided to correct that deficiency by increasing funding to tertiary institutions in PNG.
“I must admit that we are revamping higher education,” he said.
“I must also inform this house that as part of the commitment, the National Executive Council has approved the release of K500 million for the rollout and rehabilitation of programmes at the seven universities in the country,” he said.
Arore made the comments while responding to questions without notice from the Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu yesterday in parliament.
Undialu asked why several institutions in PNG were charging more than K30,000 for tuition fees and if the Government had plans to regulate the fees charged.