Ngella faces difficulties to repay debts in school fees

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

NGELLA Constituency still has school fee arrears that needs to be cleared. Now that the 10th parliament is drawing to a close, Central Islands MP was bombarded with questions when he made his last tour to his constituency as an MP.

But MP Parapolo says the arrears were waiting for him when he won the seat to Parliament.

Ngella’s MP and Paramount Chief Hon Parapolo was questioned by Constituents in Haleta Village, Central Big Ngella, on the education budget for the Constituency.

The questions came amidst reports that Ngella students in school institutions have been affected. It was reported that students were not allowed to sit for examinations and will not be accessing their academic transcript results. This is because Central Islands Province have not been able to pay up its debts.

In response Parapolo said, only $300,000.00 was allocated for Ngella Constituency in this current Parliament. He said any current outstanding school fees will be carried into the 11th Parliament.

Parapolo said he has been trying his best to settle the Constituency’s arrears for the past years that the plight of the current students were overlooked. He said he is still paying off debts from the previous parliament.

“There is this struggle as only $300,000.00 was allocated by the education authority to our Constituency. The Constituency Office has tried its best to settle the arrears but unfortunately we have now reached the end of this Parliament term. This is where we still have this problem.

Unless the policy of the government changes and $1 Million or so is allocated for the education sector in constituencies, then yes there is the possibility for us to do away with all the school fee arrears of Ngella Constituency”.

Parapolo said when he entered the 10th Parliament, there was already a huge school fee debt for the Constituency to settle.

“These are caused by past the past office. Students back then were allowed to attend schools without the Constituency Office settling their fees properly,” Parapolo said.

Parapolo adds that $300, 000.00 is just not enough and incredulous to share among all the different levels of education in the Ngella constituency.

Ngella Constituency is understood to be one of the four Constituencies in the country that have not made any payments or necessary arrangements with SINU on its outstanding fees.

SINU as of late has taken drastic measures to safeguard its finances by disallowing scholarship funds from Members of Parliament and/or constituencies.

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