Jayapura,Jubi – Classes in the Kwerba Village Elementary School of Mamberamo Tengah Sub-district, Mamberamo Raya Regency have been suspended for almost a year.
Kwerba Village Chief Isak Kawena looked upset hoping the regent takes a strict policy towards the local Education Office and teachers.
“The teachers came to the school last January. After that, they left and have never returned,” Kawena told Jubi at Kasonaweja last week.
However, he said he did know why teachers had not showed up. He some teachers who were previously assigned in his village usually came to the school only to oversee the national exams and they had no dedication and passion to educate the villagers.
He added this has occurred for long time. Every teacher assigned to the village could not stay long, only stay for couple of days, then left.
“Maybe this village is too quite, so they couldn’t stand it,” he said.
A research staffer at Yayasan Lingkungan Hidup (Yali) Papua, Cicilia Sokoy there were no classes in the school.
“I conducted cacao mentoring in the village and saw there were no learning activities. It seems like everyday the pupils were on holiday,” Sokoy told Jubi by phone on Saturday (16/11).
The Second Assistant of Mamberamo Raya Regency for Economic, Development and Finance, Ramses Asmuruf, said “The condition commonly occurs in every village of the regency. The local government is actually very concerned about it. They have good incentives. So I thought it’s up to their own personalities,” said Asmuruf.
He added the regent’s policy towards the education and health service is good, but the implementation on the ground did not meet expectations. “I thought the regent would conduct evaluation and it definitely would be a strategic policy to resolve this problem,” he said.
Kwerba Village is a village located in Mamberamo Tengah Sub-district of Mamberamo Raya Regency. It has more than two hundreds households and fifty elementary age school children. People need to travel about 3 hours from Burmeso, the regency’s capital, by small speedboat passing through the Mamberamo River. (Albert Yomo/rom)
