BY JOAN BAILEY
Markham Valley parents have been encouraged to make good use of the technical education opportunities available to their children.
Morobe technical vocational education and training (TVET) inspector John Moses urged parents to enroll their children at the Umi Technical Vocational Centre (UVTC) and to support their children all the way to the end.
The school, located at Umi in the Markham District of Morobe Province, witnessed its 23rd graduation ceremony this week.
He said that enrollments are high at the beginning of every academic year but the number decreases leaving a few to successfully complete the year.
Mr. Moses said Morobe TVET schools enrolled 3079 students in 2017 but this number dropped with student withdrawals as the academic year progressed.
He said this is not good as the government is spending a lot of money in the TVET sector to produce more technical and trade graduates.
“This school is established for the Markham people but I don’t see many Markham parents encouraging their children to take up courses here,” Mr. Moses said.
The Umi Centre is fortunate to be a recipient of the European Union (EU) human resource development phase two program in capacity development, to be followed by infrastructure development in 2018.
Mr. Moses said UVTC receives financial assistance from Markham District Development Authority, Morobe provincial government, national government and now EU are coming in so Markham people must not be spectators but participants to education development in their area.
“Send your children who dropped out at grade 8, 10 and 12 to UVTC so they can further their education and be successful in whatever their trade they choose,” he said.
He encouraged parents to support their children all the way to graduation day.
Markham district standard officer Gabriel Suka expressed similar sentiments saying TVET are pathways created by the government to cater for those who cannot continue to next level of education.