BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

NOT a single form six student has made it to the next level for three consecutive years in Siota provincial secondary school, and this is irking parents.

They are questioning the School Administration, qualification capability of teachers and suggest for the Education Authority of Central Islands Province (CIP) to look into the situation and solve it.

“Most of Students undergoing the Forms Five and Six examinations through these years are wasted within the rural areas,” said parents.

“Our children are the future so whether such ongoing situation for the school is a student’s attitude problem or an administration problem to address but we want it solved.

“We want good outcomes resulting from the Premier Provincial Secondary of the province.”

A Senior Teacher of the school through contact however said that the situation should be dealt with by the School Administration.

Island Sun is yet following up on this concern because attempts for comment from the CIP Chief Education Officer (CEO) and Provincial Education Officer (PEO) were not possible yesterday.

By Mike Puia

THE Solomon Islands Public Employees Union (SIPEU) also used its recent courtesy visit to the Prime Minister to inform him of its ethnic tension claim.

SIPEU is pursuing the government to compensate its members who risked their lives during the ethnic period, from 1998 to 2013.

SIPEU’s General Secretary, Robert Au, confirmed they have raised this claim with Prime Minister Hou.

“We want our members who risk their lives during the ethnic tension period to be compensated. In fact, some have traumatized and others resigned as a result,” Au said.

He said most of them are employees of the Ministry of Finance, staff of Customs and Police officers.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

AN increase of 70 percent has been recorded for international visitor arrivals into Solomon Islands in the last quarter of 2017, it is reported.

National Statistics Office data shows that international travelers into Solomon Islands is 67.8 percent more than the 1,428 recorded for the same period in 2016.

With this impressive increase, the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau’s CEO, Mr Josefa Jo Tuamoto described it as ‘gone off the Richter Scale’ – which shows Solomon Islands continues to shine in tourism destination.

Speaking in the Global Travel Industry News, Tuamoto said the figure symbolizes the country’s biggest-ever monthly intake since SINSO first started recording international arrival figures in 1990.

“This truly represents a watershed moment for the Solomon Islands and keeps us bang on target for a very strong finish to 2017,” Tuamoto said.

Meanwhile, last year international visitors show Australians dominated with 7,317 total recorded for September representing a 7.41 percent increase of the 6,812 recorded in 2016 and accounting for 37.2 percent of all arrivals.

Second on the list is New Zealand arrivals which jumped from 1,136 to 1,286 with an increase of 13.2 percent especially during the All Whites FIFA World Cup clash with the Solomon Islands at Honiara’s Lawson Tama Stadium.

US numbers too improved with an increasing 9.11 percent from 1,152 to 1,257 while Papua New Guinea and Fiji visitation numbers also increased, by 8.67 and 6.7 percent, respectively.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

POLICE has confirmed the death of the provincial member for Longgu ward, Guadalcanal province.

Supervising Commissioner Juanita Matanga said the cause of death is still unknown and police are still investigating the incident.

She confirmed that the deceased is a MPA and a native of Rere Village in Guadalcanal.

Police received the report on Wednesday and the National Criminal Investigations Department and Naha Police CID are investigating the death incident.

Ms Matanga said that she will not further comment but called on the public who may have information to contact the police.

Police also confirmed that the deceased was transported to the National Referral Hospital for a post-mortem to be conducted.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

SUPERVISING Police Commissioner Juanita Matanga says that Police are yet to establish the cause of death into the death incident at the Delight Bakery factory.

Speaking during the Commissioner’s weekly media conference, Ms Matanga said that investigation is still ongoing and police are calling on people who may have information about that incident to come forward and assist police in their investigation.

She said at this stage she will not comment further on the issue as investigation is currently ongoing.

Matanga also acknowledges the support from the deceased’s relatives for their understanding and allowing police to carry out investigations.

She thanks them for not taking the law into their own hands, despite their grievances.

She said it was an unfortunate incident and police shares their condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased.

On Monday, January 22, a man lost his life in the Delight Bakery factory.

It was alleged the deceased died inside the factory. Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the person.

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

FOREIGNERS working in restaurants who do not speak English and pidgin fluently is proving a major setback for the Honiara City Council (HCC) joint inspection.

Chief Health Inspector for HCC Mr George Titulu said the matter has become an obstacle for HCC in terms of working to meet deadlines of compiling of restaurants’ reports each day.

He said if foreign restaurant vendors at least learn basics of these two languages, it will help in accelerating HCC‘s inspection on per restaurant within the capital.

Titulu adds in this case they underwent an approach by having a translator available during and when assessing restaurants to help give out straight forward and accurate information.

This approach has helped HCC to at least target restaurants each day.

Moreover he adds ineffective communication issues will also go as far as affecting the working employees of restaurants and will cause conflict.

He also stressed that ineffective communication is identified as one contributing factor for restaurants’ lack of compliance to HCC’s food regulations.

“However it is vital everybody use English to communicate so that we can all on the same page when it comes to fulfilling city’s regulation,” said Titulu.