Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has this afternoon commended students of the University of Papua New Guinea for the manner in which they have petitioned him and the government on grievances.
The Prime Minister was at UPNG at noon today to receive a petition from the Student Representative Council of UPNG, witnessed by the student body at the open forum area.
He said the students showed maturity and leadership in both the drafting of the petition and their presentation of it to the government.
“I quickly looked through the petition that you have given, and I want to say that there is a lot of maturity in the manner in which this petition was drafted. You raised issues and you also offered solutions,” said the Prime Minister.
He said there was a marked difference in the way UPNG students of this generation raised concerns to the government as opposed to similar events of the past where such incidents have turned into protests, riots, and – as in the case of 1991 – the whole academic year suspended.
“In 1991, I was a student here in this forum square. We were only 16 years old as a nation then. But we were not this orderly; we had an issue, and we took to the streets. It caused six months of school suspension, in fact the entire aca- demic year in 1991 was shut down forcing students to miss out on studies until they could find spaces in the following years.
“So I want to say thank you to both the university administration and the SRC for showing maturity and allowing our students to raise pertinent points that affect the economy, our country, and allowing the government to come here and receive your petition,” said PM Marape.
The main issues raised in the petition are Foreign Exchange, Inflation, Law and Order, and Education Scholarships programs (HECAS/TESAS).
“The four main issues you raised today are important points, but there are also many points that are associated with everything else that is common in our society – job increase, containing inflations, ensuring that our economy is better place. All these are inter-related. This petition deserves a detailed response.
The questions you posed deserve a great deal of input and reply back to you,” he said.
A reply would be furnished to the students on Monday 9 September 2024 through a power-point presentation that will hold backing statistics from relevant government departments and agencies so the students understand the data and see the efforts Government has already put into addressing the raised issues, the Prime Minister said.
He added he would like to clear his calendar within the next week with Parliament session and the Pope’s visit so he could present an informative reply directly to the students himself.