“Free education in PNG will always remain as political rhetoric” Goroka MP Bire Kimisopa recently questioned the sustainability of the so-called “free education policy”. Kimisopa rightly argued that the free education policy is disconnected from broader developmental issues such as population growth. Whilst Peter ONeill and his People’s National Congress (PNC) party have continuously championed the implementation of the free education policy as a measure of their government’s performance, in reality free education remains haphazard or ad-hoc rhetoric. It has no policy status as yet nor is it factored and integrated into other equally pressing developmental challenges such as population growth, higher education reforms and rehabilitation and so forth. This is an opportune time for the PNC-led government to go a step further in the free education rhetoric and make it a truly national developmental policy with a clearly articulated legislation that allows for its comprehensive implementation. Formalizing free education as national policy will provide specific indications on how the State is expected to directly intervene in the educating of our citizens, determine clear outcomes for educational institutions and empower coordinating agencies in the enforcement of the policy. Since the 1990s, the free education rhetoric continues to be campaign election tool by various political parties. These parties appeal mostly to uneducated voters. What remains to be seen is whether government is truly genuine about free education as a mandatory developmental agenda. Enactment of supporting legislation will enable free education to exist as a mandatory national policy. There are potential benefits to this. Firstly, the free education policy as state policy will limit populist campaigns during PNG’s General Elections. In the 2012 General Elections, more than three major political parties used free education as a campaign agenda. And as we usually realize after elections, the actual implementation of free education becomes confusing after political parties get elected and form government. Sadly, the experience with the free education policy is that successive PNG governments tinker around with public expenditure to suit their various agendas or schemes and the free education policy usually falls by the wayside. Secondly, the most important benefit of making free education as mandatory national policy is that it guarantees that any new government that comes in after every election continues to the implementation of that policy. When legislated for successive governments are required to see free education implemented for the benefit of all! It is incumbent on Peter O’Neill and his government to formalize free education as a mandatory State policy for the purposes of human resource development. The people of Papua New Guinea must have the right to an education and should not be exploited during election campaigns about a policy that does not get translated to reality.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 21:50:20 +0000
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