PNG Government announces K211 million Payment of Tuition Fee Free Funding for 2022

 The Papua New Guinea Government through the Secretary for Education has announced today the payment of  K211 million to all schools in the National Education System. Secreatary Dr. Uke Kombra  also welcomed more than 2.2 million students and 65,000 teachers in  12,700 schools nationwide to the new school year 2022.

“The K211 million has already been paid as of yesterday and schools   should access these funds this week. Schools can use these funds to   assist with their operations and also pay off credits from last year,”  Secretary, Dr. Uke Kombra said.

The K211 million is outstanding from 2021. The Secretary also  announced the further processing of K158 million for Term 1 which  should be paid this week.

Despite the economic challenges, the Marape/Basil Government is   fulfilling its commitment and I on behalf of the parents and schools   commend the government for the appropriation of K632 million for 

2022 and the release of the K158 million last week. We have received   a warrant of K316 million and are expecting the next payment of  K158 million soon. 

The provinces which the GTF functions have been decentralized are   urged to make sure that schools receive their payments as soon as   the funds hit the provincial trust accounts.

“The GTFS calculations are done based on the enrolment data that   is received from the schools. Schools that have not submitted their  enrolment data for 2019, 2020 and 2021 would have payment issues”  Dr. Kombra said.

The provinces that are very poor in submitting the 2021 enrolment   data are Manus (39%), New Ireland (41%), Gulf (43%), Madang (51%),   EHP (51%), whilst the better provinces are Morobe (61%), East Sepik  (62%) and West New Britain (65%).  Principals are once again reminded of every student’s right to  education and warned that no student is refused enrolment or   attending school for want of school fees.

Next : PNG COVID-19 Controller raises concerns on Long Bank Queues