Morobe’s Education Provincial Program Adviser, Keith Tangui has warned teachers that sexual relationships or abuse towards students is a crime under the Teaching Service Commission Act and they will be terminated if found guilty.

His warning follows an incident of students allegedly attacking a teacher at the Wasu Secondary School, in Morobe’s Tewai Siassi District, over rape accusations against the teacher.

The Morobe Provincial Police have reported that on the 17th of this month, the teacher (male) was allegedly attacked by some students at around 2-3am in the early hours of the morning.

Morobe Provincial Police Commander, Superintendent Jacob Singura said the teacher was trying to rape a female student at the school’s basketball court when two male students caught him in the act. The teacher then attacked one of the students when he realized that they had seen him.

“The two boys ran to their dormitory and alerted other male students where they came back and allegedly attacked the teacher by chopping him on both shoulders,” Singura said.

Morobe’s Education PPA Mr Tangui said while the incident is a police matter now, the Provincial Education Division is also required under the TSC Act to present a report to the Provincial Education Board.

“My Deputy has already visited Wasu and is yet to present a report, as soon as it’s done, we will present it to the PEC.”

“Teacher’s suffering at the hands of the community is due to several reasons and those reasons will be spelt out during the investigation,”Tangui said.

Mr Tangui has cautioned teachers to be very careful in their conduct as committing such an offence toward a student is a serious crime and will result in termination.

Meanwhile the Provincial Police are still investigating the matter and have since arrested four suspects alleged to be involved in attacking the teacher.

Work on the construction of the new Manam high school has already started at Potsdam care centre on the mainland of Bogia District last Friday.

The new high school will occupy 8.4 hectares of land. Yabu LLG President, Kenny Boli, says the school was initiated to accommodate Manam students and the host communities.

This is to address the limited number of spaces for students at the Holy Spirit High School.

Boli further noted that the construction of the new school was also due to too many clashes by different factions at Holy spirit high school.

Thus, the project was an initiative of Yabu LLG with a funding allocation of K50 thousand kina and support by the Bogia District Development Authority with an additional K100 thousand kina.

The new high school once completed will benefit close to 500 students.

Phase one of the project was community clearing, phase 2 was land scaping by Madang works department, phase 3 was survey and phase 4, construction.

The construction of the new high school is also a reminder to the PNG government’s continuous neglect on the internally displaced Manam islanders living in the carecentres.

It’s been 18 years since the major eruption that resulted in the evacuation of islanders from Manam to the carecentres on the mainland.

The internally displaced persons are still waiting on the PNG government to resettle them to Andarum in the hinterlands of Bogia District.

Newly appointed Principal of Huon Gulf’s Salamaua High School in Morobe, Norman Apul told Lae media that the High School has taken radical steps to bring normalcy back to the school, especially with the school facility, curriculum and teaching and learning.

Mr Apul said under his leadership, they are prioritizing the welfare of the teachers and students and teamwork is paramount to achieve the school’s aim of academic excellence.

Salamaua Provincial High School is a boarding facility in Morobe with rundown dormitories, classrooms and teachers’ houses. Last year, the students burnt down two classrooms. The school currently has no electricity and lacks logistics support to travel to Lae and back for operational runs. Some male students are currently using their condemned ablution blocks as rooms.

The school also needs a health facility to access health services.

There was no support from the District over the past years.

The school has a population of almost 700 students and 22 teachers, including 15 who are currently on campus. Seven teachers are still in Lae due to no accommodation.

The school was established in 1995. It is located in Kela Village, Salamaua, South-West of Lae City. It is an hour’s travel from Lae by boat.

According to the School’s Principal, Mr. Apul, over the past six weeks, the school renovated and maintained a boys’ dormitory, few teachers’ houses and staff room.

He said they would continue to maintain the other dormitories for both the male and female students.

The school administration has also built new toilets for the staff and two duplex staff houses. They still need money to build new classrooms, dormitories and teachers houses in order to suit the standard of a level 7 High School with 1000 students.

Apul said Huon Gulf MP, Ross Seymour made commitments to maintain the run down school facility and to rebuild the two dormitories that were burnt down.

Seymour also pledged support to pay for the students’ parental component fees.

Meanwhile, the School’s Principal, Mr Apul with the support of his Deputy, Joseph Kupesan called on the District, Morobe Provincial Government, parents and the Education Division to support the school with financial support in order to build more facilities so they can reach their aim in getting a secondary school status by 2024.